Wayanad landslides a terrible tragedy, says Rahul Gandhi

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday, 2 August, described the landslides in Kerala's Wayanad district as a "terrible tragedy" of such magnitude in a single area that the state has not seen till now, and said that it should be treated differently.

Rahul Gandhi said that he was going to raise the matter in Delhi and also with Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan as "this is a different level of tragedy and should be treated differently".

He also promised that the Congress party will build more than 100 houses in Wayanad.

Gandhi was speaking to reporters after a meeting with officials of the district administration and the panchayat, along with Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other senior Congress leaders.

The official briefed them about the number of deaths, the houses destroyed and their strategies to search for and rescue people.

The Congress leader, who arrived in Wayanad a day ago and saw the extent of the destruction caused by the landslides, called it a "national disaster" and demanded an urgent comprehensive action plan to deal with it.