Uttarakhand not to declare missing persons dead

Vijay Bahuguna said the govt would provide compensation to family members of all those whose bodies have already been found

Taking a U-turn, the Uttarakhand government today said it would not initiate any action to declare the 5,748 missing persons dead in the June 16-17 deluge but asserted that the process of providing compensation and financial assistance would begin from tomorrow.

Rejecting the theory of his own government to declare the missing persons dead by the July 15 deadline, chief minister Vijay Bahuguna said the government would provide compensation to family members of all those whose bodies have already been found and financial assistance to the missing persons on the lines of 2004 tsunami in the southern states. In case of missing persons being traced, the family members will have to return the money to the government under the indemnity bond.

For all those whose relatives are still missing in the June 16-17 deluge, Bahuguna said the government will continue its efforts to search them.  “We have not given up our hope of tracing the missing persons,” Bahuguna said.

Bahuguna said the state government has decided not (not) to give compensation to the family members of the victims of the last month’s devastation from outside the hill state.  

“We will give compensation or financial assistance to only those people who belong to Uttarakhand,” said chief minister Vijay Bahuguna.  

Bahuguna said the victims who were from outside Uttarakhand will get compensation from their respective states.

Last month, the government had also declared that it was increasing the compensation amount for the dead from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. The government has stated that all those people in the state who lost their lives in the calamity would get Rs 2 lakh from the Prime Minister’s relief fund, Rs 1.5 lakh from the central relief fund and the remaining Rs 1.5 lakh from the state government. Bahuguna further clarified that people from outside the state would get Rs 3.5 lakh from the centre and also the amount fixed by their respective state governments.   

The figure of missing persons had shot up considerably within last one week in the state with the missing persons from Uttarakhand rising to 924 from 660 reported earlier. Similarly, the list of missing persons from outside the state had also gone up to 4,824 from 3,000 reported earlier.

“Since the compensation amount is very hefty, there are chances that factitious people also applying to avail money,” said a top government official.

Besides the total 5,748 missing persons, the official death toll in the tragedy stood at 580 so far.

Meanwhile, relatives of the missing persons have not lost all hope. Top government officials said a large number of people are seen in different areas of Rudraprayag district looking for their relatives.