KOCHI: When Chennai was ravaged by floods in 2015, the Kerala government and the people here had extended their wholehearted support by providing cash aid and relief materials such as food, medicines, medical teams and other essentials. Now, it’s payback time for Tamilians as they are giving back to the flood-hit Kerala.
The relief materials collection centre set up under the district administration at Palakkad has been flooded with huge consignments of relief materials by the Tamilians. “When Chennai was ravaged by the floods, it was Kerala which first came and extended the support. This is our turn to return that respect by providing all the necessary relief materials to the Kerala people. We will support until life returns to normalcy here. All are ‘nammakkal’ (our sons),” said Ramachandran, a Tiruchirappalli resident, who reached Palakkad along with seven others to hand over the relief materials. According to Ramachandran, a container truck with relief materials will reach Palakkad from Tamil Nadu on August 24.
“We are collecting several relief materials from different parts of Tamil Nadu. After sorting out, we will bring this to the collection centre. Since the response was overwhelming, we additionally booked a container truck for transporting the relief materials,” said another member in the group. Renu Ramesh, Deputy Collector (LA) Palakkad, who is the in-charge of the collection centre, said 80 percent of the relief materials are coming from Tamil Nadu. “They are bringing a lot of things to the centre for the Keralites as a relief measure. Most of them are bringing the materials using trucks,” said Renu, when asked about the collection process.
Rice, mat, sanitary napkins, sarees, lungies, water bottles, bananas, milk powder, baby food and vegetables are the major items they handed over to the collection centre. “Though Kerala has some issues with Tamil Nadu over Mullaperiyar, people from both the states love each other. That is what reflected at the relief material collection centre. Lakhs of materials are pouring from Tamil Nadu and other states to support Keralites,” said MLA Shafi Parambil.
MB Rajesh MP rubbished the hate campaigns against the state as ‘meaningless’. “I am personally getting hundreds of calls from people in Tamil Nadu wanting to help us. They are such a loving people and are eager to help their flood-hit brethren here. The hate campaigns launched by a section of people will never affect in receiving help from the Tamilians,” said Rajesh.