Centre Alerted, Kerala Ignored: Amit Shah In Parliament On Wayanad Landslides

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday blamed the Kerala government for the Wayanad's landslide tragedy, accusing the LDF government of ignoring the warnings.

Speaking in Parliament, Shah said that the Centre had alerted the Kerala government a week before the landslides on Tuesday. The incident has killed over 190 people.

He said, "My condolences to the bereaved families... I want to clarify something for the country... They kept on talking about early warning. I want to clarify that on July 23, the government of India gave an early warning to the government of Kerala, which was 7 days before the incident, and then on July 24 and 25 too early warning was given. On July 26, a warning was given that there was a chance of heavy rainfall of more than 20 cm, and there were chances of landslides, there could be mudflow and people could lose lives in this. Questions are being raised about the early warning system of the government... The government has spent Rs. 2000 crores after 2014 for the early warning system...",

He added, "Under this early warning system, on July 23, at my direction, 9 NDRF teams were sent to Kerala considering that there could be landslides... What did the Kerala government do? Were the people shifted? And if they were shifted then how did they die?... The project of early warning started in 2016 and by 2023, India had the most modern early warning system... There are only 4 countries to predict 7 days in advance and India is one amongst them..."

Meanwhile, intense search and rescue operations are underway in Wayanad district. The Army, NDRF, and state rescue teams are working tirelessly to locate missing persons.

As of Wednesday, the Army reported recovering approximately 70 bodies and rescuing nearly 1,000 people. Additional military personnel and resources have been deployed to support relief efforts.

The disaster has caused widespread devastation in the region, with hundreds injured and displaced.