Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi lead protests in Parliament against the Center for helping landslide victims in Wayanad | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday announced plans to organize demonstrations, inside and outside Parliament, led by Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, to protest against inadequate central assistance to the Wayanad landslide victims.
T Siddique, party leader and MLA from Kalpetta, criticized the Centre’s apparent reluctance to provide financial assistance to the affected areas, terming it “inhumane”. He stated that both he and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan sought help from Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the disaster.
“It is an inhumane approach to the people who have suffered such a huge tragedy,” he said, as quoted by PTI, adding that the Congress party would intensify its protests against this both inside and outside Parliament. “Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi will lead the agitation,” he told reporters.
The CPI(M)-led LDF government and the Congress-led opposition UDF have jointly urged the BJP-led Union government to categorize the landslide as a national disaster and provide necessary relief for the immediate rehabilitation of the survivors. However, the government recently informed Kerala that under the current Disaster Fund guidelines, there is no provision to declare calamities as ‘national disasters’, causing political unrest.
The July 30 landslide affected three villages – Punchirimattam, Chooralmala and Mundakkai – and parts of Attamala. Official reports indicate 231 dead and 47 still missing.