Idukki: The National Service Scheme Unit of the Government Engineering college decided to lend a hand to cyclone-struck people in Tamil Nadu. On Sunday, NSS volunteers of the college conducted a drive to garner aid in this regard. Money, food, grains, stationary items etc were collected from houses, shops, and institutions. The collected items will be handed over to the Idukki district collector who in turn will hand over them to the corresponding authorities in Tamil Nadu.

The NSS volunteers were divided into small units and they fanned out to several areas and almost covered the Painavu region on Sunday.

Several parts of Tamil Nadu are reeling under the impact of cyclonic storm Gaja. The disaster comes a few months after the neighbouring state Kerala was wrecked buy floods and landslides. Keralites received timely help from outside the state, especially Tamil Nadu, following the disaster.

Nearly 45 people were killed and more than 2 lakh people were evacuated to relief camps after Gaja hit the coasts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry early on November 16. Several areas of Nagapattinam, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Pudukottai, Dindigul, Trichy, Karur, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram, Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu and Karaikal in Puducherry were affected as the storm made its landfall with wind speeds of 120 km per hour .