Kerala Flood: Odisha CM Announces Rs 5 Cr Aid

Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday announced an assistance of Rs 5 crore for the flood victims of Kerala.

The southern state of India has been reeling under one of the worst floods in history with the death toll mounting to 77 till Thursday.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had called Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday to seek more aid considering the situation.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi also spoke to the Prime Minister and urged him to “massively increase deployment of Army and Navy” in the flood-hit Kerala.

The state has for the time opened sluice gates of 35 of its 39 dams.

Train services and road transport services have been disrupted with stretches of roads coming under water.

Hundreds of villages have been flooded, more than 10,000 km of roads and thousands of homes destroyed or damaged across the state, officials said.

According to sources, educational institutions in all districts, barring Kasaragod, have declared holiday on Friday while colleges and universities have postponed exams.

The Kerala government has also sought the help of more teams of Army personnel and engineer and National Disaster Response Force in the rescue and relief operations.

Meanwhile, more than 60,000 people have taken shelter in relief camps.

“All districts have been put on red alert with more rain expected in the next 24 hours,” an official from the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority told AFP on Thursday.