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A 13-year-old girl from Tamil Nadu performed Bharatnatyam for three straight hours to raise funds for the people affected by the massive landslides in Kerala's Wayanad.
The teenager, Harini Sri, met Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and donated Rs 15,000, including her savings, to the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF) on Thursday. She showed her Bharatnatyam dance recorded on a phone to the Chief Minister and he blessed her.
"A 13-year-old girl child from Tamil Nadu, Harini Sri, performed #Bharatanatyam for three hours straight to raise funds for #Wayanadlandslide to #standwithwayanad. She donated Rs 15,000, including her savings, to #CMDRF," the Information Public Relations of Kerala government tweeted.
Several initiatives, including a crowdfunding feast in Tamil Nadu, have been held in an effort to assist people affected due to the landslides in Wayanad last month.
On July 30, torrential rainfall triggered landslides in Mundakkai and Chooralmala areas of Wayanad, flattening houses and trapping people under the debris. So far, 417 people have died in the disaster.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Wayanad on Saturday (August 10) amid calls from Opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, to declare the calamity as a national disaster.
Declaring Wayanad landslides a national disaster will ensure the release of additional funds for relief and rehabilitation, among others.
During a press conference on Friday, Chief Minister Vijayan said the Kerala government had asked the Centre to declare the landslides as a national disaster and extreme disaster.
He said the Union Home Ministry had appointed a nine-member committee to examine the severity of the disaster and submit a report on the same.
Vijayan also said there was a positive response from the Centre to deal with the calamity. He hoped that the state government would get central assistance and a comprehensive rehabilitation package and that PM Modi would take a call in this regard.
