KOCHI: With another flood ravaging Kerala, relief operations have become crucial. But the extent of the disaster being concentrated in the Northern part of the state has meant that the situation is not as dire as the flood of 2018. As a result, most of the volunteers registered from Ernakulam are being underutilised. “As of now, we have close to 10,000 volunteer registrations from the district and only 10-15 per cent have been deployed in relief and rescue operations.
So we have more than sufficient volunteers under various departments like cleaning, material collection and on-field rescue,” says Vishnu K Mohan, district project manager at Kerala State IT Mission and Ernakulam point-of-contact for keralarescue.in, the official portal for all volunteer registrations across the state.
Of the precise 9,909 registered volunteers, a maximum of 500 has been accorded duties. “I have been getting hundreds of calls every day from people wishing to register themselves but the requirement is comparatively low. The district administration has a huge database and is prepared if the situation worsens,” he adds. Like last year, students and techies have been at the forefront with many coming forward to render backend IT services.
“A team of employees from Infopark was involved in data entry of inventory and flood mapping for the first two days. Also, several engineering students from Cusat and other colleges have extended help. Around 70 students from Cusat are working on a project related to flood relief as we speak,” said Vishnu. “Registrations are in excess. Now, they can only be deployed for cleaning process,” observes Chandrasekharan, deputy collector.