CM visits rain-ravaged areas of Uttarkashi

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Tuesday visited the rain-ravaged Mori block of Uttarkashi to take stock of relief and rescue operations even as the death toll in rain-related incidents in the district rose to 13.

Search and rescue teams of the State Disaster Response Force found one more body in Makudi village. The body was identified as that of 60-year-old Lal Bahadur who hailed originally from Nepal, the SDRF said.

Four others are still missing, it said.

Makudi is the worst-hit among the six villages where heavy rains caused a number of houses to collapse early on Sunday. So far seven bodies have been recovered from Makudi, four from Arakot and one each from Tikochi and Sanel. The six affected villages include Arakot, Makudi, Molda, Sanel, Tikochi and Dwichanu.

The chief minister, who had sent his ministers to the disaster-hit areas of Uttarkashi on Monday, himself visited the affected areas on Tuesday for a first hand assessment of the situation.

He also went to places where affected people have been put up temporarily and assured them of all possible help from the government, an official spokesman said.

IAF helicopters have taken food packets, blankets, medicines and clean drinking water to the affected people, official sources in Dehradun said.

The rescue teams have left Arakot where a base camp was set up on Monday for Tikoch, Dochang, Makudi and Chiva whereas a medical team has also been ferried by a helicopter to the affected areas, they said.

The SDRF is putting up food camps in affected areas and alternative roads are being built in areas where roads are blocked by rubble of landslides.An alternative bridge is also being built in Chiva by SDRF personnel.

Chief Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh also held a meeting on Monday evening to assess the damage caused by heavy rains in Uttarkashi and instructed PWD officials to take up connectivity restoration in affected areas on a priority basis.

The chief secretary also asked officials concerned to restore supply of drinking water in affected areas expeditiously. He asked different departments to coordinate with each other so that relief reaches people smoothly.