Congress offers to build 100 houses in landslide-hit Wayanad

Congress offers to build 100 houses for landslide victims in Wayanad, urges government support for relief efforts.

The Congress has offered to construct 100 houses for those who lost their dwellings in the landslides at Chooralmala and Mundakkai in Wayanad. Kerala’s Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan said here on August 3 that he had spoken to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan about this.

Mr. Satheesan was talking to the media after visiting the family members of lorry driver Arjun, who has been missing after a landslip at Shirur in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka.

“Around 400 houses had been damaged in the landslide at Chooralmala and Mundakkai. The residents cannot return there and safer locations should be found for them to stay. The Congress will build 100 houses. If the government provides land for the purpose, the houses could be built there. Otherwise, we will purchase land, and do it,” he said.

Mr. Satheesan said that Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, who represented the Wayanad segment earlier, had directed the Kerala unit of the party to take steps in this regard. Till the rehabilitation was complete, temporary accommodations should be found for the people and the government should pay the rent.

Asked about the reluctance on the part of the Union government to declare the Wayanad landslides as a national calamity, he said that this was not the time to play politics. Mr. Satheesan said that though the Congress also differed with the State government on many issues, the party was extending all its support for the relief and rescue operations.

Mr. Satheesan, meanwhile, also condemned the alleged campaign on social media against contributing to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).

“To dispel the misgivings in the minds of people, the Chief Minister should clarify that the money being sent for relief works would go to a separate bank account and the transactions would be transparent,” he added.