- 21 Jun 2013 06:26
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Finally a famous shiva's statue that's no more now.
India apparantly ready to take over the world and doesn't even had a basic disaster management program in its most disaster prone area. The death tolls is in thousands now and no one have a clear picture exactly how much damage this flooding has caused.
New Delhi: Nearly 14,000 people are believed to be missing in flood-ravaged Uttarakhand and another 60,000 continue to be stranded. While more than 150 people are reported dead so far from the "Himalayan Tsunami" in the state, officials say the death toll could be in the thousands.
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Thousands of people have been rescued but the inability of rescue teams to navigate disaster-struck areas has left over 60,000 people stranded in Uttarakhand.
According to the State Disaster Mitigation Centre, while 22,392 pilgrims have been safely moved to camps, the death toll has reached 71, with 53 persons injured and 23 missing.
Though officials say 20 people have died in Kedarnath, according to survivors the death toll is much higher.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has agreed to give Rs. 1,000 crore to the State for disaster mitigation and announced Rs.2 lakh for the families of the dead and Rs. 50,000 for the injured.Kalyan Singh from Rajasthan’s Karauli district, who lost his wife at Kedarnath, recounted that on Monday the height of the swollen river could be that of a double-storey building. He was rescued on Tuesday evening.
Another survivor said people stranded on hilltops in Kedarnath had not received any food or water since Monday morning.
It will take one year to clear the slush: CM
“Kedarnath shrine is safe but it is under a lot of slush,” said Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, adding it would require at least one year to clear the slush. “The shrine will remain out of bounds for pilgrims for one year,” the Chief Minister said. Located in the Himalayas at a height of 3584 metres near the Chorabari glacier, the temple is a popular destination for Hindu pilgrims from all over the world.
Sources told The Hindu that people have been starving for four days now at Gaurikund and Munkatia, which is about 3 km from Gaurikund. Helicopters are airdropping the food aimlessly and people suffering from diabetes and heart problems do not have access to healthcare services. The weather has improved as rains have stopped at many places.
Raj Kishore Trivedi, a shopkeeper from Kedarnath, was admitted to the Doon Hospital in Dehradun with a broken leg on Tuesday evening. His shop was washed away early Monday morning in an avalanche of debris and water from a glacier that collapsed heaping destruction on the Kedarnath temple and the surrounding valley.
Indresh Mekhuri from Chamoli district, who visited Govindghat on Wednesday, told The Hindu: “Flash floods have destroyed more than half the market area at Govindghat. For two days the stranded pilgrims there were without food. Only today they ate after digging and drying some ration from the debris-laden gurdwara.”
According to him, hundreds of pilgrims are stranded at Govindghat and around 200 pilgrims on the other side of the river have not been rescued as a bridge has collapsed.
‘This was inevitable’
Uttarkashi residents complained that the destruction was inevitable as in almost 11 months since the last flash floods in August 2012, the government had not completed the pending construction work.
Reacting to this, Uttarakhand Disaster Management and Mitigation Centre Section Officer Pradeep Shukla said: “The construction started only a few months ago after the process of issuing tenders was over. The government can be called slow in this regard as it always receives enough money to mitigate disaster.”
He told The Hindu that more than 80 per cent of the funds allotted under the National Disaster Response Fund , the National Calamity Relief Fund and the State Disaster Response Fund were utilised by the Uttarakhand government almost every year. In 2012, the Centre gave an extra Rs.72 crore to the State government to restore the disaster-hit areas. However, this fund was not used for construction in areas where it was needed the most, he said.
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Rescue operations in Uttarakhand, hit until Thursday afternoon as helicopters faced bad weather, are now expected to speed up, as 16 roads that were blocked across the State were declared open on Thursday. They include roads reaching Guptkashi in Rudraprayag district and Joshimath in Chamoli district, which are very crucial routes for rescue operations.
According to the Border Roads Organisation, National Highway 94 from Rishikesh to Dharasu and National Highway 108 from Dharasu to Gangotri (up to 30 km) were also declared open for light vehicles.
Rakesh Sharma, Principle Secretary (Industries), said, “Going beyond Rudraprayag and Joshimath would be impossible for the next six months or even a year.”
Until Thursday evening, the number of deaths noted was 105, with an equal number of people injured, said Bhaskar Joshi, Secretary, Uttarakhand Disaster Mitigation Centre. However, the administration predicts a ‘shocking figure’ on the number of deaths once the survey of all the disaster-hit areas in the State is complete.
According to the centre, while 50,422 pilgrims are still stranded, 33,192 were rescued by helicopters.
Of the pilgrims stranded in Chamoli, Rudraprayag, and Uttarkashi districts, rescuing those stranded in Kedarnath and the surrounding valley is a priority as they had no access to food. Vacating pilgrims from Guptkashi and Gangotri were the next priorities as food and other material were sent to these places. Rescue operation at Badrinath would start on Saturday. Personnel on helicopters have been instructed to rescue the elderly, women and children first.
Mr. Joshi told The Hindu that of the 26 helicopters operated on Thursday, 14 rescued people from Kedarnath.
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Finally a famous shiva's statue that's no more now.
India apparantly ready to take over the world and doesn't even had a basic disaster management program in its most disaster prone area. The death tolls is in thousands now and no one have a clear picture exactly how much damage this flooding has caused.
"Reason has always existed, but not always in a reasonable form." Karl Marx