Thiruvananthapuram : Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan slammed the fake propaganda against Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).
Talking to reporters after a review meeting on floods, he said the funds received under CMDRF would exclusively be used for relief measures.
He said over 2.5 lakh people have been living in relief camps functioning smoothly. Despite false propaganda, lots of people are coming forward to help them.
However, he expressed anguish at how vested interests are taking to social media on CMDRF.
He also defended the Thiruvananthapuram district collector, K. Gopalakrishnan, who had appeared on Facebook urging people to wait for two more days before collecting relief materials.
"Lots of people are contributing to CMDRF. It has not gone down well with a section of the people. It is a heinous crime to spread false propaganda, and there should be a collective effort to prevent such action," said Mr Vijayan.
He urged people to stay safe and asked visitors to relief camps to behave and not to enter relief camps with "special duties."
At the time of the press conference, there were only 60 deaths, and by evening, toll went up to 72.
Now, 251,831 people of 73,076 families are living in 1639 camps.
"As of Sunday morning, Idukki reservoir has got 36.61 per cent of storage capacity. All the eight dams of KSEB were full last year during this time. The shutters of five dams of irrigation departments and three small dams have already been opened," he Vijayan.
Central forces and Fire Force are active in rescue operations at Kavalapura where a landslide hampered the mission.
There is a team of Navy for rescue operations in Malappuram, and Wayanad districts.
Five earthmovers were also deployed for the search and rescue mission.
