U'khand: Bahuguna to meet PM tomorrow, give damage estimate

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tomorrow to present his government's estimate of losses caused by last month's calamity, and attend a meeting of Union Cabinet's Sub- committee for relief and rehabilitation of flood-hit people.
Bahuguna, who left for Delhi today, will be accompanied by senior officials, including Chief Secretary Subhash Kumar, during his meeting with the Prime Minister, and for the Sub-committee meeting, the Chief Minister's office said here.
Bahuguna will present the state government's estimate of the losses caused by the June calamity to the Prime Minister, as well as to the Cabinet sub-committee tomorrow, it said.

The Prime Minister had on July 10 constituted the Cabinet committee to oversee reconstruction and rehabilitation in Uttarakhand.
Defence Minister A K Antony, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde are among the members of the committee headed by Singh.
With the cleaning of the interiors of Kedarnath shrine almost complete, the Chief Minister has convened a meeting of Badri-Kedar Mandir Samiti here on August 2 to finalise a date for resumption of regular prayers.

Efforts are under way to resume prayers at the 8th century shrine at the earliest, Bahuguna told reporters here.

He said that the state government's priority is now to transport heavy stone-cutting equipment to Kedarnath area at the earliest to kickstart the debris removal exercise there.
Tonnes of debris, with a strong possibility of decomposed bodies trapped under them, have been lying in the area ever since the calamity struck Uttarakhand last month.
However, the Chief Minister said the clearing of debris at the Himalayan shrine and commencement of regular prayers are separate issues, which should not be clubbed together.