JAIPUR, July 7, 2013: For more than three weeks since torrential rain created mayhem in Uttarakhand, Ram Singh a sepoy in the Army posted in Jaipur has been waiting for his 14 family members who are still missing. Except his father who returned home, there is no clue on the whereabouts of these members including his mother, uncles, aunts and other relatives. Since all rescue operations are over at Rishikesh, Gauri Kund and Kedarnath and officials of the state government too have returned, families whose kin are still missing are in a fix.

The family members neither want to organise funerals of their missing relatives nor consider their relatives dead.

"We have spoken to them on June 15. My father Ram Naran (56) could only return because that day he decided that he will not go any further and stopped at Rambara. However, his other 14 family members are still missing," said Ram Singh while talking to TOI over phone from Jatwara village on the outskirts of Jaipur along the Jaipur-Agra highway near Dausa.

He also criticized the move of the state government which has asked its officers to return from Uttarakhand.

"Had they been there, they would have urged the Uttarakhand authorities to find the missing and also properly identify the bodies. I have been reading and watching news stories which say that funeral of the bodies are organised without proper identification, which is very disturbing for us," Singh said.

He further said there opinions on the family members are divided over considering whether the missing ones to be dead or still alive.

"Some of the relatives have asked us to organise mourning ceremonies, but how can we do that?" he added, saying he had also spent a fortnight at Uttarakhand to find out his missing relatives.

Likewise, the family members of Umesh Yadav and Tarun Sharma are worried as they along with their respective wife and kids too are missing from Kedarnath since June, 16.

"A 20-member group of our relatives too had gone to Uttarakhand to find them. Our missing kin had taken a personal vehicle which was not recovered yet. We have very meager hope of their survival and for our family members it is very difficult situation," said Govind Yadav, one of the relatives of Umesh Yadav who had gone with his two kids - Raj and Pranay - and wife Archana.

However, government authorities maintained that they are in touch with their Uttarakhand counterparts on the missing persons.
 

Source: The Times of India, DT. July 7, 2013.