New Delhi: The government at the center has requested business organizations and industrialists to help the region of flood-affected Kerala with whatever they can as the situation there is “humanitarian crisis”, Union Minister Suresh Prabhu said today.

The Union Minister, Suresh Prabhu holds two portfolios, one being the Commerce and Industry and the second one Civil Aviation. He said that domestic airlines carrying cargo to the state were persuaded to do the service at free of cost.

Not less than 200 people had to face death and more than 7.24 lakh people were reportedly displaced from their home locations due to the floods and landslides in the state of Kerala. The state has been under heavy rains of monsoons from the past week.

Mr. Prabhu sought to make it clear that the government does not want any kind of “politics” over the mission of providing rescue and relief to Kerala, as he said that it was only trying to facilitate help.

“Government has asked industrialists and business organisations… to help in whatever (way) they feel is appropriate,” Mr Prabhu told news agencies during an interview here.

Talking over the steps being implemented in the state of Kerala, the minister said that he has already issued orders to the DIPP Secretary to hold talks with all industrialists, philanthropists and business organizations to extend their help as much as they can.

“We are not collecting anything, we are only facilitating… What is the purpose of collecting and putting our stamp? We don’t want to do any politics over it,” he said.

As the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) is under the Commerce and Industry Ministry, the Union Minister took crucial steps in this regard.

He clarified that all those efforts being made are based purely on humanitarian grounds “It is a humanitarian crisis… (which is) very sad and unfortunate,” he added.

As per the details were given by him, the Civil Aviation Ministry came up with a strategy under which various key airline operators were contacted with the request of helping Kerala to deal with the current flood situation by transporting free cargo without any kind of charge.

From today onwards, after a big gap, Civil Aviation Ministry began commercial flights from the naval airport of Kochi, while the main airport of the city is closed until August 26 due to the flood situation.

“We are willing to do anything and everything possible to make Kerala come back on its own feet,” Mr Prabhu said.

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