Even roadside landslides are being made to look like the ones in Wayanad: Goa minister

Panaji: Goa Town and Country Planning Minister Vishwajit Rane on Monday said even minor landslides along roads in the state are being made to like the devastating tragedy in Kerala's Wayanad.

Speaking in the assembly on the demands for grants for Town and Country Planning department, Rane said the government is taking required precautions to ensure such incidents do not happen.

"But even if there is a landslide on the road, you make it look like Wayanad," he said referring to the statement by Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao.

Responding to the statements made by Madhav Gadgil pertaining to the Western Ghats, Rane said the renowned ecologist and academic is a respectable person.

"You are also intelligent like Madhav Gadgil," he said in a lighter vein to Alemao.

Rane said land conversions were an ongoing process and these have to be taken "judiciously", adding that people's sentiments are taken into consideration while changing the land use.

Referring to social media posts against him, Rane said, "Social media paints someone black in a day and it takes 10 years to turn it into white. Social media is such that it reaches everywhere faster than light." He assured the House that apprehensions raised by the members would be addressed.

So far, 226 bodies have been recovered after massive landslides struck Wayanad in Kerala in the early hours of July 30. Several more are missing.