Post date: Jul 15, 2013 12:4:56 PM
State Chief of ravaged Uttarakhand state says that relief packages will be given to kin of 5,748 missing persons who are presumed dead in flood mayhem.
DEHRADUN, UTTARAKHAND, INDIA (JULY 15, 2013) (ANI) - State Chief of ravaged Uttarakhand state Vijay Bahuguna on Monday (July 15) said that relief packages would be given to kin of 5,748 missing persons who were presumed dead in flood mayhem.
In June, flash floods and landslides unleashed by early monsoon rains killed at least 1,000 people Uttarakhand and left tens of thousands missing.Ecologists blamed reckless construction on the bank of River Ganga and its tributaries for this calamity in Kedarnath region, one of the worst affected areas.
Talking at a news conference in Dehradun city, Chief Minster, Vijay Bahuguna said that as decided in the cabinet committee meeting, setup for providing rehabilitation to the affected, adequate monetary relief would be provided to the families of the victims.
"Our statistics reveal that approximately 5,748 people are missing in theUttarakhand floods. We have tallied numbers with other states as well and confirmed the number of people affected in the floods that have not got back home. In the cabinet committee meeting, we had decided if anyone affected in the floods didn't contact their family within a month, we would provide monetary relief to the victim's family and this would begin from July 16," said Bahuguna.
He added that the state is proclaiming anyone dead or alive, however it is providing monetary relief to families of those victims who haven't contacted them in the last one-month.
"We are not getting into the controversy whether the missing persons are dead or not. We are abiding to what the families of the victims say, and if they think that they haven't come back and have no hopes as well, we are providing them the monetary relief. This is ideally a monetary relief and not compensation. We are not issuing death certificates to any flood victim. We are assisting families of the victims and we are with them in this time of disaster," he added.
Over 1,05,000 stranded and marooned people were rescued by the personnel ofIndian Air Force, Army, the paramilitary Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in the flood ravaged state.
The disaster had been dubbed as 'Himalayan tsunami' by the media due to the torrents of water unleashed in the hilly region, which sent mud and boulders crashing down, burying homes, sweeping away buildings, roads and bridges.