Please declare Kerala floods as national disaster: Rahul Gandhi urges PM Modi

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday urged PM Modi to declare Kerala floods as national disaster. Congress President's appeal comes in a day when PM is in Kerala taking stock of the situation first-hand. PM held a review meeting with CM Vijayan and other high ranking officials. He announced an interim relief of Rs 500 crore in addition to the Rs 100 crore earlier declared by the Centre. PM also announced ex-gratia Rs 2 lakh for the kin of deceased in floods. So far 324 people have been killed in worst flood in Kerala in nearly 100 years. 

Rahul Gandhi said on Twitter, 

Dear PM,

Please declare #Kerala floods a National Disaster without any delay. The lives, livelihood and future of millions of our people is at stake.

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 18, 2018

 Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday urged party cadre in flood-hit Kerala to mobilise resources for helping the people of the state, while displaying the core Congress values of service and love.

"Across Kerala & now Kodagu in Karnataka, heavy rainfall has caused widespread devastation. This is the time for our workers & leaders to demonstrate the core Congress values of service & love. Please focus all our resources & people to help those in need (sic)," he tweeted. Kerala has been severely hit by monsoon rains and rivers and dam reservoirs are overflowing, inundating a large part of the southern state. The deadliest deluge has dealt a severe blow to the scenic state, wrecking its tourism industry, destroying standing crops in thousands of hectares and inflicting huge damage to infrastructure.

With agency inputs