Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has hit back at Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Home Minister Shah had said that the state government was already warned about floods and landslides. Addressing the media in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday, the Chief Minister said, ‘The central government should also understand that there are serious issues related to climate change. Have we seen such extreme rainfall in the past as we are seeing now? We need to work on climate change. When something like this happens, you cannot escape responsibility by blaming others. As I said, I don’t think this is the time to blame.’
Pinarayi Vijayan was responding to Amit Shah’s statement in the Rajya Sabha, in which the Home Minister had said that the Kerala government was warned on July 23.
Amit Shah said, ‘The Centre has spent more than Rs 2,000 crore to develop the pre-warning system since 2014. I want to clarify that on July 23, the Centre had given a pre-warning to the Kerala government seven days before the incident, and then on July 24 and 25 we warned them again. On July 26, it was warned that there is a possibility of heavy rainfall of more than 20 cm and landslides may also occur.’
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‘It rained more than the warning’
The Home Minister said that nine NDRF teams were sent to Kerala on July 23 in view of the possibility of landslides. Amit Shah asked, ‘What did the Kerala government do? Did they send people to another place? And if they were sent, how did they lose their lives?’ On this, Pinarayi Vijayan said that the weather warning of the central government was that Wayanad would receive 115-204 mm of rain. But in the next 48 hours, the area received 572 mm of rain.
The chief minister further said that only an orange alert was issued on the day of the landslide. He said, ‘Not even once a red alert was issued in the area before the tragedy. It was only after the landslide occurred that a red alert was issued at 6 am that day.’
The chief minister said that on July 29, the Geological Survey of India had issued a green alert for July 30 and 31, predicting the possibility of minor landslides or rock bursts. However, by that time, heavy rains had already occurred and the landslides had already occurred.
The Chief Minister said that the Union Home Minister has presented such information in Parliament which does not match the facts. Pinarayi Vijayan said, ‘When he (Amit Shah) proudly says that we are the best (among countries in giving early warning), I am just telling that such mistakes have also happened. I am not saying this to blame him.’