Kerala floods: NCMC asks to focus on food, medicine supply

New Delhi [India], Aug 19 (ANI): As the massive floods have wreaked havoc in Kerala, the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) on Sunday directed the central ministries to focus on provision of emergency supplies of food, water, medicines and restoration of essential services in the southern state.

NCMC met for the fourth time today in last four day to coordinate rescue and relief operations among the Defence Forces, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and other Central Ministries and Kerala Government.

Thousands of personnel of Indian Navy, Air Force, Army, NDRF and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) are engaged in the rescue and relief operations, which is in full swing in Kerala.

Till now, 38,000 people have been rescued and evacuated from the flood-affected areas. Medical aid has been provided to more than 23,000 people and around 3,00,000 food packets have been supplied by the Food Processing Ministry.

Apart from this, Railways will run two special trains on August 20 to Kolkata, originating from Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam. All the train services are expected to be restored on all lines by Monday evening. A special train carrying 14,00,000 litres of water and a Navy ship with 8,00,000 litres of water will reach Kerala by tomorrow. Commercial flights will also start operating from Kochi Naval Base from August 20.

The Department of Food and Public Distribution has made available 50,000 metric tonnes of food grains (rice and wheat) to meet the immediate requirements with additional quantities in the pipeline. The Department of Consumer Affairs has made arrangements to airlift 100 metric tonnes of pulses by tomorrow with additional quantities to be sent by train.

In addition to this, 9,300 kilolitres of kerosene has been made available to Kerala by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry. Additional 12,000 kilolitres of kerosene will be allocated and the Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) bottling plant in Kochi has been reopened.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is also scheduled to airlifting 60 tonnes of emergency medicines on Monday. Six specialised medical teams have also been kept on standby.

The review meeting, chaired by Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha, was attended by Secretaries of Central Ministries including Home, Defence, Health, Civil Aviation, Food Processing and Power, Chairman, Railway Board and Senior Officers of Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, NDRF, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

Chief Secretary, Kerala also participated through video conference in the meeting, who informed that the situation is gradually improving in the state. The death toll, ever since the monsoon season began this year, has crossed 300. (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI