Shirur landslide: Kerala delegation meets CM Siddaramaiah, seeks resumption of search to track missing persons

Bengaluru, Aug 29 (IANS) A delegation from Kerala, led by Kozhikode MP M.K. Raghavan, met Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday to seek the resumption of search operations for a truck driver and others from the state who went missing after the landslide at Shirur near Karwar in the state’s Uttara Kannada district last month.

A memo, submitted by the delegation to Siddaramaiah, stressed the “urgent need to restart rescue operations in Gangavali River, at Shirur, Ankola Taluk of Uttara Kannada district.”

“As you are well aware, a recent landslide happened in Shirur has resulted in the disappearance of three individuals – Arjun, Jagannathan and Lokesh. As a representative from Kozhikode, I’m profoundly grateful for your government and district administration including police, who have worked day and night with rescue and relief operations effectively coordinating with various state and central agencies to find the missing persons,” Raghavan said in the memo.

“Despite our hard efforts, we were unable to locate the missing persons. However, we believe that there is still a possibility of finding them with the aid of dredgers. Therefore, we respectfully seek your permission to deploy a dredger in Gangawali River to search for the missing individuals. We request your good self to give necessary instructions to the district administration of Uttara Kannada to resume the rescue operations immediately with a dredger,” he said.

Majeswaram MLA A.K. Ashraf was present on the occasion.

Arjun, who is presumed dead, was driving a truck loaded with 40 tonnes of timber to Kozhikode from Belagavi and had stopped for tea on NH 66 when the accident took place neat Shirur village on July 16. Multiple rescue teams have been searching for him for some time, with efforts hampered by continuous rain. So far eight bodies were recovered before the rescue operation was called off.

–IANS

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