Wayanad landslides: LDF workers in Kerala lay siege to Raj Bhavan, Central govt facilities in protest against denial of aid

LDF activists protest in Kerala against Centre's denial of aid for landslide-hit Wayanad, demanding disaster compensation.

Hundreds of Left Democratic Front (LDF) activists marched to Central government offices across Kerala on Thursday (December 5, 2024) to protest against the “denial of federal aid” for rehabilitating the landslide-hit population in Wayanad district. 

Inaugurating the Statewide agitation near Raj Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram, Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretary M.V. Govindan said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre was yet to disburse any meaningful aid to reintegrate almost 2,000 families displaced by the catastrophic natural disaster into society’s mainstream.

Mr. Govindan said the Wayanad disaster had few parallels in the country regarding scale and devastation. He said it was incumbent on the Centre to disburse aid. “Kerala is not holding out its arms for alms from the Centre. It is demanding that the Centre honour its Constitutional obligation and honour the State’s inalienable right to disaster compensation”, he said.

Mr. Govindan said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Wayanad visit was in vain. Central Ministers were now making light of the disaster, he said.

“A former Union Minister said the landslide swept away only two panchayat wards. A compatriot of his had earlier trivialised Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination by stating that the killer had used only a small bullet”, he added.

Mr. Govindan welcomed the Congress MPs from Kerala for joining forces with the LDF to petition Home Minister Amit Shah for urgent release of funds.

He criticised Suresh Gopi, the Union Minister of State for Petroleum; George Kurian, the Union Minister for Fisheries; and P.T. Usha, MP, for “refusing to join” Kerala’s clarion call for federal aid.