'Worst is over,' in Uttarakhand, says Bahuguna

Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Vijay Bahuguna, said here today that although the worst was over in terms of calamity caused by rains, his government has the difficult task of providing relief to the stranded and help people in reconstructing the damaged houses and agricultural land.

Chief Minister Bahuguna said: "The worst is over now. Our efforts now will be to concentrate on all those in Uttarakhand who have lost their villages, home and all their belongings and help them to revive their assets including agricultural lands. All the district officials have been asked to take care of all those villages that are facing a shortage of rations and start providing relief to the locals"

Bahuguna expected that the armed forces will ensure that the pilgrims and tourists stuck will be evacuated within the next two or three days.

Meanwhile, relief and rescue operations in flood-hit areas of Uttarakhand were affected due to heavy rain today. According to reports, helicopters have not been able to take off due to bad weather; and many of those who were rescued by the army earlier, are unable to leave the state as landslides have blocked highways. According to the Met department, the weather is unlikely to improve for the next three days. Former Home Secretary V K Duggal , who has been asked to coordinate relief work, discussed with various agencies, the strategy for evacuation. Over 10 thousand people are still stranded at different places . On Sunday, the army and Indian Air Forces (IAF) has put to use some of the best military skill-sets to rescue hundreds of fatigued and exhausted pilgrims and tourists in the Kedar Valley. Using cliff assault techniques, skilled mountain rescue troops of Army evacuated 460 by foot through one of the most dangerous zones in Kedar Valley. The pilgrims were given food, fresh water, medical aid, blankets and plastic sheets at Gauri Kund army camp before further evacuation to Sonprayag. Launching two columns simultaneously from Dharasu and Barkot, Army reached Hanuman Chetti , Janak Chatti and Yamunotri this morning with the stranded pilgrims. Army also launched Phase 3 of 'Surya Hope' today which would focus on contingency plan of evacuating people by road from the hubs at Harsil, Gauri Kund and Badrinath.