The Kerala government has decided to declare as dead those who went missing in the twin landslides at Chooralmala and Mundakkai in Wayanad on July 30 last year.

This has come as a huge relief to the families of 39 whose kin were reported missing in the devastating landslides.

The government has issued a directive to form two committees — one at the state level and the other at the local level — which will carry out the procedures to declare the missing people as dead.

The Wayanad administration will add these missing people to the list of the dead. The immediate task before the local-level committee is to prepare this list.

For a long time, the people affected by the twin landslides have been complaining about the inordinate delay in the distribution of financial aid. Assisting the families of the missing persons has been a major demand of the disaster-affected.

N.K. Sukumaran, a member of the Meppady panchayat in Wayanad, told The Telegraph that 39 people had been missing in the twin landslides.

“Initially, 47 people had gone missing. After the DNA tests, the number came down to 39. According to the Meppadi panchayat-level statistics, the total number of deaths in the Wayanad landslides is 298,” said Sukumaran.

However, revenue minister K. Rajan’s office told this newspaper that the death toll can be confirmed only after a fortnight.

“There are a few more DNA samples to be collected. The local police will have to register an FIR. These procedures will take two weeks. Following this, the three-member state-level committee will be convened, which will then announce the final death toll,” said Rajan’s private secretary.

According to the government order, revenue department officials will collect FIRs registered in connection with the missing people. They are expected to prepare special inquiry reports citing that the missing people could not be located.

The local-level committee will have as members the panchayat secretary, village officers and the station house officer of the local police station. This committee will prepare a list of the missing peopleand file it before the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA).

The DDMA will then examine the list and forward it to the state-level committees with suggestions. The immediate family members of the missing persons can register complaints until this month-end.