Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah
Credit: DH Photo
It's been more than 6 days since the landslide in Uttara Kannada's Ankola occurred on July 16. The landslide, which has caused massive destructions in Shirur, washing away parts of the Gangavali river and the NH-66, took the lives of at least 7 people with several others reported missing.
While the disaster response of the state machinery appears to be taking shape with the expected arrival of the Indian Army team and the Navy’s Sea-bird team to speed up the search operations, Keralites have pointed fingers at the Karnataka government for sluggishness and lukewarm response to the unfolding disaster and their anger has been further fuelled by reports that one of the victims, identified as Arjun, who hails from Kozhikode in Kerala remains trapped under the debris.
Arjun, a truck driver, is believed to have stopped at a tea stall nearby where the landslide occurred. The GPS location of Arjun’s BharatBenz lorry, owned by one Mr Munaf, who is also at the site where the search operations are underway, claimed to have been located under the debris.
While Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has earlier written to his Karnataka counterpart to expedite the search process to save the Kerala resident trapped under the mud, Keralites feel that the rescue operations have taken far too long to make any difference.
The Keralites have started the #savearjun campaign on social media and have begun flooding Siddaramaiah’s Facebook page seeking help in the search for Arjun.
Social media users have gone to the extent of tagging influential people, ranging from ministers to people like Elon Musk as well.
Meanwhile, LiveLaw also reported that a PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking the deployment of the Army to save the life of Arjun.
Union Miniter H D Kumaraswamy visited the site yesterday and Siddaramaiah is expected to visit the spot on Sunday.