Uttarakhand pays Rs.530 lakh relief for Haryana victims' kin

The Uttarakhand government has released Rs.530 lakh for the kin of 106 Haryana pilgrims who went missing in Uttarakhand during the flash floods in June, a Haryana official said Tuesday.

Haryana received the amount of Rs.5 lakh per victim from Uttarakhand government.

"The amount has been released to deputy commissioners for further distribution," Additional Chief Secretary and Financial Commissioner (Revenue) Krishana Mohan told IANS.

A total 112 people from across Haryana, who were on pilgrimage in the different parts of Uttarakhand, went missing during the floods June 15-17.

Later, six bodies were recovered but missing people were also declared dead by Uttarakhand government after a month long search and rescue operation.

"Though the amount has been transferred to deputy commissioners but it would take more time to distribute it," said a senior officer on condition of anonymity.

"The kin of dead pilgrim would required a death certificate, complete identities of heirs of deceased and after the verification of facts by local administrations, amount would be distributed," the official added saying all the procedure could even take months.

From Gurgaon, 15 pilgrims, including 6 women, had been declared missing. Eleven of them were from Heli Mandi, 2 from Wazirabad and one each from Mumtazpur village in Pataudi and Jhanjhrola in Farukh Nagar.