Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, staff give a month’s salary to Kashmir victims

Thiruvananthapuram: Home Minister Mr Ramesh Chennithala will contribute his one month salary and perks to Kashmir relief fund. A statement from the minister's office said that the minister's personal staff would be also contributing a day’s salary to the Kashmir relief fund. Meanwhile, almost all Malayalis who were stranded in Kashmir were rescued. "A last batch of Malayali stranded in Kashmir was brought to Delhi today. All the Malayalis in Kashmir, about whom we received information, could be shifted to safe location," said Mr. Chennithala. He also said that the control rooms would continue to function so that any fresh information regarding Malayalis stranded in Kashmir could be communicated. Upa Lok Ayukta justice K P Balachandran and family who were stranded in Srinagar were bought back to Delhi on Saturday.

OTHER STATES TOO SEEK KERALA’S HELP

With the control room opened at the State Disaster Relief Cell here effectively tracing the whereabouts of hundreds of Malayalis stranded in Kashmir, even relatives of persons hailing from other states who were stranded in Kashmir has sought the state control rooms help. “We have received call from places like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Since we could not check the local contacts of the callers, we gave them the contact details of the disaster management authorities of the concerned states,” said State Disaster Relief Cell nodal officer Dr Sekhar Kuriakose. The control room could establish contact with almost all Malayali’s stranded in Kashmir about who information were provided by relatives, except five persons. The five include Malayalis who were settled in Kashmir for quite some time. Lack of exact information is the main hindrance in establishing contact with them, said Dr. Kuriakose.