Kozhikode (Kerala): A family in this district is waiting with bated breath for news about Arjun, a lorry driver who has been missing for four days after his truck was caught in a massive landslide in a village in Karnataka, hopeful that he would be rescued and returned to them.
The reason for their hope is that his mobile phone was ringing even on Friday morning and the GPS tracker on his truck was still emitting a signal, placing the vehicle somewhere underneath the massive mound of mud and rock debris.
According to Kerala Transport Minister K B Ganesh Kumar neither the phone nor the GPS would work if the truck had fallen into the nearby waterbody as was initially speculated by those carrying out the rescue operations at the site.
Kumar, speaking to reporters here on Friday, said that as soon as information about the missing driver was received, he got in touch with his counterpart in Karnataka who in turn informed the concerned District Collector.
“I also asked P C Vishnunadh (Congress MLA) to get in touch with the Karnataka government to exert pressure,” Kumar added.
The minister said that continuous rain in the area was posing a challenge to the rescue efforts, but the debris was being cleared in stages.
He also said that Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan got in touch with Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah over the issue.
Vijayan, in a letter to Siddaramaiah, said that Arjun’s family was anxiously waiting for news about his whereabouts and urged the Karnataka CM to consider deploying ground penetrating radars to locate any vehicles that might be buried under the debris.
He said, in the letter, that the lorry driver’s family were deeply distressed by the uncertainty surrounding the situation.
Meanwhile, Arjun’s parents and wife are experiencing a plethora of emotions ranging from fear and despair to hope, evident from their faces as they sit together on a sofa while friends, relatives and media persons troop in and out of their home.
According to the family, they last spoke to Arjun on Monday after which there has been no contact from him.
As they waited in hope for his rescue, the incident also saw the BJP blaming the Congress government in Karnataka for allegedly not “lifting a finger” to trace the missing driver till pressure was exerted on them.
The accusation came from BJP state president K Surendran who also alleged that the Karnataka government was against the people from Kerala.
Six bodies have been recovered after the landslide incident on July 16.
Vehicular traffic has been temporarily suspended on National Highway 66 following the landslide.
