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Kerala floods: PM Modi announces compensation of Rs 2 lakh for deceased victims’ kin, takes aerial survey
CM Pinarayi Vijayan informed Friday that the heavy rains, floods, and landslides have killed at least 173 people since August 8. Over 82,000 people were rescued on Friday as multiple rescue agencies relocated people from flooded districts to relief camps.
By: Express Web Desk | New Delhi |
Updated: August 18, 2018 1:39:14 pm
kerala floods rain live updates rescue underway as death toll rises to 165

Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the flood situation in a high-level meeting with CM Piniarayi Vijayan and Union Minister Alphons KJ and other officials. (Photo: PMO India/Twitter)
In a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and other state officials, the Centre announced a financial assistance of Rs 500 crore to the flood-ravaged state on Saturday. This is in addition to Rs 100 crore earlier announced by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh last week. PM Modi also announced an additional financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh to the next kin of the deceased individuals, and Rs 50,000 to the victims who have been reported to be seriously injured. This allocation shall be made from PM’s National Relief Fund.

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READ | Kerala floods LIVE UPDATES

PM Modi also undertook an aerial survey of the flood-affected districts in the state. The survey was called off earlier today due to bad weather. The Prime Minister, who reached Kochi Saturday morning, is in Kerala to assess the damage and check the rehabilitation measures employed by the administration.



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The Prime Minister, after an overnight stay in the Thiruvananthapuram, had left for Kochi Saturday morning for the aerial survey and the review meeting to get a first-hand insight of the enormity of the disaster caused by the southwest monsoon.

Meanwhile, rains lashing several parts of the state since this morning is causing concern as it could hamper the rescue and relief operations. Chengannur in Pathnamthitta, Chalakudy in Thrissur and various parts of Ernakulam district are among the worst hit where rescue efforts are likely to be concentrated today.

ALSO READ | Many bodies trapped in landslides not retrieved; desperate for food, clothes for women: Idukki MP

Since airlifting is the only option in some remote areas, where people are marooned since the past four days, the state government has sought more helicopters for airlifting them, chief minister said. Chengannur MLA Saji Cherian pleaded for more help and said thousands of people were stranded in houses without food and water, if immediate steps are not taken to evacuate them, their life will be in danger.

CM Vijayan informed Friday that the heavy rains, floods, and landslides have killed at least 173 people since August 8. Over 82,000 people were rescued on Friday as multiple rescue agencies relocated people from flooded districts to relief camps.

EXPLAINED | Kerala floods: All your questions answered

A colossal southwest monsoon in Kerala has resulted in floods and landslides in the state, the magnitude of which has hardly been observed in recent memory. The situation, described as unprecedented by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, is considered similar to the violent floods of 1924 if not as serious. The Centre and state administration along with the armed forces are working hand-in-hand across all 14 districts, to rescue thousands marooned in their homes.

According to the recent weather report, heavy rains along with gusty wind speed upto 60 kmph is expected in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Idukki and Ernakulam districts.

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First Published on: August 18, 2018 10:10:05 am
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The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today gave its approval to rename the Agartala Airport in Tripura as ‘Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya Kishore Airport, Agartala. The decision comes in the wake of the long pending demand of people of Tripura as well as the Tripura Government for paying tribute to Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya Kishore.

Background

Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya Kishore, who ascended the throne of the erstwhile Tripura Princely State in 1923, was an enlightened and benevolent ruler. Agartala Airport was constructed in 1942 on the land donated by Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya Kishore. As a visionary ruler, who had travelled extensively across the globe, he took several steps for the all-round development of Tripura. Due to his initiative, an aerodrome at Agartalawas constructed that has evolved as the second busiest airport in the North East and provides crucial air connectivity to Tripura. Hence, it is apt to rename the Agartala Airport after his name, which will be a befitting tribute to Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya Kishore.

India has set off on an ambitious mission, a mission to provide electricity to 18,000 villages which are still in darkness after almost 7 decades of independence. PM Modi, in his Independence Day speech announced that all remaining villages shall be electrified within 1000 days. Rural Electrification is happening at a rapid pace, and is being done in an unbelievably transparent manner. Data on villages being electrified is available to the public through a mobile app and a web dashboard. While we can observe only electricity reaching the villages, it is also important to note that it is accompanied by dreams, aspirations & upward mobility in life for the people residing in villages.



It is difficult to forget that one of the largest power outage in our history happened in India in July 2012, leaving 62 crore people in darkness. Such darkness engulfed the nation, even as more than 24,000 MW of generation capacity lay idle due to lack of fuel like coal and gas. The entire sector reached a vicious cycle of inaction and policy paralysis with surplus generation capacity and massive unutilized investments at one end while large power cuts for the consumer on the other end.

When the NDA Government came to power last year, as many as 2/3 of coal based power plants (66 out of 100 coal plants tracked by Central Electricity Authority) were having critical coal stocks meaning less than 7 days of coal stock. Recovering from such a dire situation, today not a single power plant in the country is facing critical coal stock level.

While working hard to provide electricity to all, the Government has made clean energy a priority. It has set ambitious target to achieve 175 GW energy through renewable sources of energy, which include 100 GW of solar energy.

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The new Government has focused on holistic and long term structural improvements in the sector, with a focus on achieving 24X7 power for all. The health of the power sector is borne out by the growth numbers. As per the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), electricity grew at 9% in October while Coal India Limited’s output rose 9% in Apr-November. In 2014-15, Coal India has increased coal production by more than the increase in the last four years combined. As a consequence, imports plummeted 49% in November vs last year. The growth of generation from coal based stations during 2014-15 was 12.12%, which is the highest ever.The crisis arising from cancellation of 214 coal blocks by Hon’ble Supreme Court was turned into an opportunity through transparent e-auctions, all of whose proceeds go to States especially the less developed States in East India.

A capacity addition of 22,566 MW was achieved in the last year which is the highest ever. The peak shortage has reduced from 11.9% in 2008-09 to 3.2%, the lowest ever. Energy deficit during the current year has also reduced from 11.1% in 2008-09 to 2.3%, the lowest ever in the history of India.

On transmission front, there used to be a lot of constraints in supplying power from surplus states to deficit States. Efforts were made to expeditiously synchronize the Southern Grid leading to ‘One Nation, One grid, One Frequency’. The Available transfer Capacity (ATC) during 2013-14 was only 3,450 MW which has been increased by 71% to 5,900 MW this month.

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In terms of fixing the weakest link in the power value chain, UDAY (Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana) has been rolled out to tackle past, present and potential future problems of the sector. UDAY was developed through a bottom up approach with extensive consultations at the highest levels of States (CM, Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, DISCOM MDs etc.), Bankers, regulators etc. While addressing DISCOMs’ debt trap, UDAY delineates a path for sustainable operational improvement for DISCOMs. Government is also taking a number of initiatives to reduce cost of power. This is expected to result in all the DISCOMs becoming profitable by 2018-19. A budgetary hard-stop under UDAY provides a permanent resolution to DISCOM issues and combined with a collaborative approach, focus on improving efficiency and reducing cost of power, distinguish UDAY from previous attempts to reform the sector.

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Areas like energy efficiency have seen dynamic growth with more than 75% reduction in LED bulb prices and distribution of more than 4 crore bulbs in less than one year. The target of replacing every single bulb with an LED bulb is on track with 77 crore bulbs to be distributed by 2018. The domestic and streetlight LED bulb programmes will help reduce the peak-load demand by nearly 22 GW, save 11,400crore units of electricity annually and bring about a reduction of 8.5 crore tons in carbon dioxide emissions every year. Setting up 22 GW capacity may have been hailed as a monumental achievement but it takes a different perspective to appreciate the avoidance of such investments while preserving the environment.