The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the landslide-stricken areas of Meppadi panchayat in Kerala’s Wayanad district on Saturday, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) officially told the Kerala government on Wednesday (August 7) as per local news channels.
Modi’s visit comes at a time when several Members of Parliament from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra as well have asked the Union government to declare the Wayanad landslides — which so far have claimed more than 220 lives, as per official estimates — as a national disaster, since this will ensure the release of more funds for rehabilitation, among others.
Today, on August 7 — the ninth day of the tragedy — Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi had also requested the Union government to declare the Wayanad landslides as a national disaster.
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, meanwhile, had said on August 6 that the state will ensure that people affected by the landslides will be given world-class rehabilitation facilities.
Modi’s visit also comes at a time when members of his party have been engaging in multiple bitter blame-games with the state government. On August 1, home minister Amit Shah claimed that the Union government had given Kerala “early warning” of the heavy rains. Media reports, however, found that this was a misleading claim. Vijayan also refuted Shah’s claim and announced that the Union government’s red alert had come after the landslides occurred in Wayanad.
Again, on August 5, Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav had claimed that illegal mining and human habitation were what caused the landslides. Vijayan, responding on August 6, termed Yadav’s comments “unjustified”, “unfortunate” and “wrongful allegation”. Yadav, meanwhile, retorted on August 7 in the parliament that he was only quoting news reports.
PM to visit Wayanad
According to local news channels, the Prime Minister’s Office has informed the state government on August 7 evening that Modi is scheduled to visit the landslide-stricken areas of Meppadi panchayat in Wayanad district on August 9. The prime minister will survey the area by helicopter and is also expected to visit relief camps in the area, according to the sources.
Modi is visiting Wayanad at a time when search operations are still ongoing, as of August 7.
On August 7, the search for people still unaccounted for in areas affected by the landslide, including Soochipara, entered its ninth day. For the third consecutive day, authorities also conducted mass burials in the premises of the Meppadi panchayat in Wayanad, where more than 220 people are officially confirmed to have died after multiple landslides buried entire neighbourhoods under slush and debris.
Also read: After Landslides, Union Govt. Reaching Out to Scientists to Criticise Kerala’s Governance: Report
On August 7, authorities buried two dead bodies and four body parts (the latter found near the Chaliyar river in Malappuram district) at Puthumala near Meppadi, as per state television news channels.
Incidentally, when Modi visits Wayanad, he will be visiting the constituency that he had claimed in 2019 was one where the “minority” is a majority, and one that Modi said Gandhi had decided to contest from because he was not confident of winning in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi, which Gandhi had represented for three terms from 2004 before being defeated in 2019.
The Congress was “afraid” to field candidates from constituencies dominated by the majority population because it had insulted Hindus by calling them “terrorists”, Modi had claimed.
While the Congress demanded that he apologise because he had insulted southern India as a whole too, the Election Commission claimed that Modi’s election address in Maharashtra — where he made these comments — did not violate the model code.
Rehabilitation model to be on par with world-class facilities
On August 6, Vijayan had said in a press conference that people who are currently living in relief camps other than Chooralmala due to floods in the district will be permitted to go back and live in their houses if the buildings are still safe for habitation and once the slush and mud collected in their homes have been cleaned.
There are several buildings in the affected areas that have not collapsed yet but are likely to and may not be safe for habitation. The government would investigate whether such buildings — which are “very dangerous” — can be demolished without owners’ go-aheads based on latest laws, Vijayan said.
Three specific wards (10, 11 and 12) in Meppadi panchayat that have been affected by the landslides have been declared as disaster-affected areas. Experts would examine the buildings that are affected in the area and decide whether they need to be demolished. Landslide survivors who are currently living in relief camps in schools will need to be moved to other places and other arrangements will be made for that. The State Disaster Management Authority would also submit a report on the post-disaster needs assessment; and for their survey of the disaster-struck areas, all arrangements would be made for the four-member Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) for their survey, Vijayan added.
Currently, the priority is to find the missing people and that is going on, said Vijayan on August 6. He also said that the state government has declared plans for a township, and that they would discuss with survivors to see if they want to be part of the township or go back to the areas they were living in.
“We will make a detailed rehabilitation plan,” he said at the press conference.
“This will be on par with world-class facilities, like I mentioned yesterday. We will also contact specific architects for this purpose, including those who have worked in environmentally fragile areas. It will be a model rehabilitation scheme that will set an example for not just our country but the world. However much it will cost, that should not be a concern for us.”
The government is also gathering information on the official documents that people have lost in the area, and they will be made available to the survivors as fast as possible. People who have lost mobile phones will be given new ones as well as sim cards and connectivity, Vijayan added, and the process of identifying unrecognisable dead bodies through DNA analyses would be expedited.
Yadav’s comments “unjustified”, “unfortunate”
On August 5, Union environment minister Yadav told ANI that Wayanad landslides were the “state government’s fault” and that it occurred due to “illegal habitation and mining” in the area. He also added that “local politicians” had “allowed the encroachment of this area”.
On August 6, in an address to the media, Vijayan retorted, and said that Yadav’s comments were “unjustified” and “unfortunate”, and that his claim that illegal mining and habitation caused the landslide was a “wrongful allegation”.
Vijayan went on to claim that no one expected a disaster in the area. This, however, is not true. A local research organisation, the Hume’s Centre for Ecology and Wildlife Biology had told The Wire and several other media houses that they had warned the state and district authorities on July 29 that Mundakkai was at risk of landslides. Similarly, Puthumula, one of the villages where the landslide occurred on July 30 had also witnessed a landslide in 2019; however, apart from loss of property, no deaths had occurred then.
“In such a situation, combined efforts and deep thinking is required… So it is unfortunate that some are using this opportunity for big narrow-minded interests… that people who have the ability to influence people are engaging in such talk is insulting. Unfortunately, honourable union environment minister Bhupender Yadav’s comment was one such,” Vijayan said.
“He [Yadav] said that illegal mining and habitation is what caused the Wayanad landslides,” Vijayan added. “This is a wrongful allegation.”
And through such an allegation, Yadav was “insulting the people who are affected by the tragedy,” the chief minister added.
“If one has at least a little idea about that area, about Kerala’s hilly areas, can one classify the people living there as illegal encroachers? The settlement of Kerala’s hilly areas has centuries of history… without knowledge of any of that, stamping all hill settlers as encroachers by the union environment minister is, at the bare minimum to say the least, not justified.”
Yadav’s “vichitramaaya vaadam (bizarre stance)” was also that illegal mining had caused the landslides, Pinarayi said. However, the distance from the Mundakkai landslide area to the nearest quarry is 10.2 km, the chief minister claimed.
“When this is true, why is the Union minister presenting wrong facts…what is the intent or politics behind saying that this is the reason for the landslide? You are putting the blame of the disaster on the poor estate workers and people living in the area who have lost their lives in the disaster. This is not right.”
He went on to add that Yadav’s comments further prove that news reports of the Union government getting in touch with individuals to author articles criticising the Kerala government may indeed be true.
Incidentally, it is during Yadav’s term as the Union environment minister that the Union government has brought in several legislations to ease the expansion of existing mines, and diluted existing environmental laws including the Forest Conservation Act of 1980.
Yadav, meanwhile, responded to Vijayan’s comments and claimed that he did not “insult” the people of Wayanad in the Rajya Sabha on August 7. He said that MP John Brittas’ allegations that he “insulted” the people should be expunged from the records. He claimed that he was merely stating facts and that illegal quarrying and habitation had occurred there which the Kerala government ignored, and that he was repeating what he saw several news reports as saying.
“The Communist Party must not play politics on this,” Yadav said, in the parliament.
He also told Times Now on August 7 that there were illegal settlements and mining in the area, and these caused the landslides. The Kerala government did not take sufficient steps to also implement the Gadgil report in eco-sensitive areas, Yadav mentioned.