Fifty people from Orissa have sought shelter in Kerala in the wake of recent communal violence that rocked Kandamal and other places in that state, Kerala Social Welfare Minister P K Sreemathi said today.

They had been put up in various rehabilitation homes under the Social Welfare Department in Ernakulam and Thrissur districts, with the state bearing the expenses for their food and clothes, she said in a written reply in the Assembly.

Efforts were on to ascertain the details of their kin and would be sent back to their native places.

For this, the services of a person knowing Oriya had been enlisted, she said.