On Sunday, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan took to Facebook to urge Malayalis across the globe to consider donating their one month’s salary to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).
Echoing the Chief Minister’s post, Kerala Governor P Sathasivam too urged those ‘holding high offices’ in the state to contribute their salaries to the relief efforts, after having given one month’s salary to the efforts himself.
I hereby appeal to people holding high offices in Kerala to contribute one month's salary towards rebuilding Kerala #KeralaFloodRelief #RebuildingKerala @CMOKerala @PIB_India
— Kerala Governor (@KeralaGovernor) August 27, 2018
Following this, a number of people have come forward to contribute their salaries to the CM’s relief fund which would be used to rebuild the state.
The Kerala State General Education Secretary, A Shahjahan, was among the first to donate a month’s salary towards the relief measures.
The list of contributors also includes minister Mercy Kuttiamma, State Police Chief and Director General of Police of Kerala Loknath Behera, Advocate General CP Sudhakara Prasad as well as Opposition MLAs Thiruvanjoor Radhakrishnan, Anwar Sadath and VS Shivakumar.
Excise Commissioner Rishiraj Singh too donated a month’s salary to the CMDRF along with SC-ST Commission Chairman BS Mavoji, Kollam city police commissioner Arul Krishna, and the Chief of the Fire and Rescue Department, A Hemachandran.
Furthermore, 3,700 members of the Secretariat Employees Association and all the employees in the office of the state Health Minister KK Shailaja too donated their salaries to the CM’s fund.
Oushadi Chairman KR Vishwambharan and Vice Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University C Babu Sebastian were also among the people who have contributed a month’s salaries to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund.
CM Pinarayi Vijayan had added in his post that that while not everyone would be capable of donating a month’s salary at once, he suggested that willing people could break the amount down and donate it over 10 months.
Kerala is now faced with the massive task of rebuilding the state following the heavy rains and flooding which plagued the state and caused large-scale damage to people and properties across the state.
As of Sunday, there are 1,435 relief camps operating in the state, with over 4 lakh people currently living in these camps.