Immediate aid promised to flood-hit people in Idukki

The government will distribute compensation to the eligible people in the district immediately, he said while addressing a review meeting at Idukki collectorate on Monday. He said that the officials should report the actual loss of flood and landslides in Idukki.
“The officials should not exclude any eligible people. The government will distribute the primary assistance of Rs 10,000 to each family soon,” said Chandrasekharan.
“The government will take immediate steps to reconstruct the destroyed roads in Idukki,” said power minister M M Mani.In 19 major landslides in the district, 46 lives were lost. A total of 56 people were killed in rain-related incidents in the district and seven went missing. In the landslides, 56 people were injured, said Idukki district collector Jeevan Babu K.
MP Joice George asked the government to take immediate steps to calculate the loss in the district and give special consideration to those whose houses were destroyed. “The government must ensure protection of the environment in the district during the construction activities,” said MP Benoy Viswam. A total of 1,200 houses were destroyed and 2,266 damaged in the rain havoc, said officials. Agriculture products in 11,339.64 hectares of land were destroyed.
In rain-related incidents, 11 schools and 11 anganwadis were destroyed. Anaviratty LP School and Vijnjanam LP School at Mukkudam were destroyed due to landslide. The landslides and rain destroyed 145-km long national highway, 1,145.78-km long PWD roads and 865.93-km long panchayat roads, said officials.
MLAs Roshy Augustine, P J Joseph, E S Bijimol, S Rajendran and Idukki SP K B Venugopal were among those who attended the meeting. After the review meeting, the revenue minister visited the wort-affected Cheruthoni bridge. The officials expect to partially resume the traffic through the bridge soon.
PWD road division superintending engineer T K Beldev, executive engineer Jacob John and assistant engineer K M Sharafuden led the inspection of the destroyed Periyavara bridge at Munnar. PWD will fix nine iron bars in the area and construct a temporary bridge and resume the traffic on this route soon.
Meanwhile, the water level in Idukki reservoir is continuously coming down and recorded 2,398. 22ft on Monday, compared to 2,398.70ft on Sunday. The dam safety wing continues to release water from Idukki dam at 200 cum/sec apart from the 115 cum/sec water being released for power generation. However, the water level in Mullaperiyar dam increased to 138.93ft on Monday, compared to the 138.30ft on Sunday. As many as 906 people are housed in 15 relief camps in the district.