Defence lab sending 3 tonnes food to Uttarakhand

The Defence Food Research Laboratory here is sending Monday three tonnes of pre-cooked food for the rain and flood-hit people in Uttarakhand, an official said Sunday.

"We are dispatching three tonnes of vegetable pulav, upma and suji halva to Uttarakhand tomorrow (Monday)," a spokesperson of the lab told reporters.

Mysore is about 130 km from Bangalore.

The lab is an establishment of the defence ministry's Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and was set up in this city in 1961.

It is intended "to provide logistical support in the area of food supplies and varied food challenges of the defence and paramilitary forces".

Meanwhile, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said in Bangalore the state government's six-seater helicopter is reaching Dehradun Monday afternoon to help evacuate stranded people.

The government estimated about 1,200 people from the state were caught in the rain and flood havoc, and of them nearly 300 have been evacuated so far, including about 80 Sunday.

The state has also sent two teams of two doctors each to Uttarakhand to provide medical aid to the stranded while another team is in New Delhi to help the evacuated.

Karnataka Information and Infrastructure Minister Santosh Lad and a team of three officials are also in Uttarakhand to help evacuate people from the state.