Mazagon Dock rebuilding Kerala anganwadis

Thiruvalla (Kerala) Aug 26  Officials from the Mumbai-based Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDSL) were working overtime to make sure that water-logged anganwadis in the worst affected Kerala districts were getting cleaned up, a company executive said here on Sunday.

Led by former naval captain Ramesh Babu, seven officials from MDSL, representatives of the 15th Kerala Battalion, NCC and volunteers of the Mar Thoma College have cleaned up more than a dozen anganwadis and a few schools in the state's central districts of Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta.

The Logistics Skill Council of India has provided the transportation arrangements of the MSDL team.

MSDL had first started this initiative in Kozhikode. It donated Rs 1 lakh and over 200 kits comprising all the cleaning materials.

"But later we realised that it was the central districts that needed more attention. We arrived here on August 16 and have been engaged in the cleaning operations ever since," said Babu, presently a General Manager at MDSL.

He said their main aim was to clean up all the anganwadis but were flooded with calls from various organisations to clean up schools also.

"We have agreed that we will support them, but on condition that when these organisations clean up the schools, they should clean the nearest anganwadi too," added Babu.

The Gujarat and Nasik Malayalee Associations have sent the ration for these anganwadis.

Ever since monsoon rains began lashing Kerala since May 29, a total of 417 people have died. 

This month, unprecedented floods caused widespread destruction and forced more than a million people to flee their homes to take shelter in relief centres.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday evening said over 6.05 lakh people were still sheltered in 1,822 camps.