Floods: Sonia asks all Cong MPs, MLAs to donate 1 month salary

Directs all party MPs to give Rs 10 lakh each from their MPLAD fund for carrying out relief work

Congress President Sonia Gandhi today directed all party MPs and MLAs to donate their one month salary for relief work in the flood-ravaged Uttarakhand as the magnitude of the flash flood tragedy continued to rise, with the death toll in the rain fury reaching190.

Gandhi also directed all party MPs from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to give Rs 10 lakh each from their MPLAD fund for carrying out relief work there," party's communication department in-charge Ajay Maken told PTI.

Congress has currently 203 members in the Lok Sabha and 72 in Rajya Sabha.

The party has also set up a PCC control room at Dehradun to accelerate the relief work.

AICC Secretary Sanjay Kapoor and the party's wing Seva Dal's chief Mahendra Joshi have been sent to Dehradun to monitor the work.

"All PCC chiefs are being asked to send all the relief materials from their states to Uttarakhand immediately," Maken said.

Terming it as the "worst tragedy of the millennium", Agriculture Minister of Uttarakhand government Harak Singh Rawat said, "It will take us at least five years to recover from the extensive damages caused to the entire infrastructure network in the Kedarnath area which is the worst affected."

Rawat, who had visited the Kedarnath area, said that he spent five hours there and was shocked to see the extent of the damage caused to the buildings and area adjoining the shrine.

Operations to rescue over 9,000 stranded in Kedarnath and Badrinath were stepped up with deployment of 40 helicopters.

Minister of State for Planning and Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Shukla said that he has donated two-months salary for the flood-relief work.

In his tweet, Maken said that Gandhi, who undertook an aerial survey of Uttarkhand on Wednesday, will visit the affected areas and relief camps again.

She has also asked Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna to restore power and communication line and speedily evacuate people stranded there.

On Tuesday, Gandhi had spoken to Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Chief Ministers of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand seeking "timely and prompt" relief measures for flood-affected people in the two states.