Venkaiah Naidu asks Govt. to declare Uttarakhand floods as 'national calamity'

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader M. Venkaiah Naidu on Friday requested the Government of India to declare the Uttarakhand floods as a 'national calamity' so that the country can take care of the entire sufferings of the people and make adequate arrangements for their reconstruction.

"I request the Government of India to declare this as a national calamity because it is the rarest of rare. I have not seen in my life such a devastation anywhere in the country that being the case it has to be declared as a national calamity so that the country can take care of the entire sufferings of the people and make adequate arrangements for their reconstruction," he said.

Naidu announced that he would like to contribute Rs. 50 lakh from his MPLADS (Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme).

"And I urge upon the Government of India and also Parliament Committee and MPLADS to relax this norm to allow to give this money to the victims of Uttaranchal (Uttarakhand) and Himachal, I hope they will do it," he added.

Naidu further said the Indian Railways is doing good arrangements to send back the people to their respective places.

Over 34,000 pilgrims and tourists have so far been evacuated from different parts of the flood-affected areas mostly from Rudraprayag, Tehri, Uttarkashi and Pithoragarh districts in Uttarakhand.

Army, ITBP and National Disaster Response Force have launched one of the biggest human rescue operations.

Nearly 14,000 people are believed to be missing and another 60,000 are stranded.

Over 150 people are reported to be dead so far. The Uttarakhand State Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre has in its report to the Union Home Ministry said that casualties in the affected areas may run into thousands with about 90 'dharamashalas' (rest houses for pilgrims) swept away in the flash floods.