Dehradun, July 9, 2013: Relief and rescue operations were severely hampered on Monday due to heavy rainfall in the disaster-hit areas of Uttarakhand. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned of continuous heavy rainfall at some places in the State till Tuesday.

S.A. Murugesan, District Magistrate, Chamoli, told The Hindu , “Today, seven buildings in Chamoli district were completely damaged due to heavy rainfall. The residents were moved to safer places on Sunday evening itself.”

Ration was being locally arranged for these people.

Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Subhash Kumar said, “No relief operations have taken place in Pithoragarh district for three days in a row.”

Around 400 locals are still stranded in different villages in Pithoragarh district. Five choppers are placed in the district to start evacuation and relief operations as soon as the weather allowed choppers to fly.

At Badrinath in Chamoli district, 150 people are still stranded. Two helicopters are present in the area to undertake relief operations. Mr. Kumar said 40 people were evacuated from the area on Sunday evening.

Electricity supply still need to be restored in 140 of the 3,758 villages and hamlets where supply was hampered and drinking water needs to be restored in 66 villages of the 968 villages. Mr. Kumar said that the government was taking up temporary restoration, which could be expected to be done by July 10.

Of the 1,976 roads that have been damaged throughout the State, 1,575 roads had been temporarily restored while 401 still remain blocked. The blocked roads have cut off 706 villages.

Mr. Kumar said connectivity would be restored in these villages by July 31. By July 15, the government would provide tracks for mules so that relief material could be delivered to the remote areas.

Though Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna on Monday declared that 4045 people were missing, Mr. Kumar said, “According to reports, 3,180 people from other States and 795 Uttarakhand residents are missing.”

V.K. Duggal, member of the National Disaster Management Authority said the final figures on the number of missing people would be declared within three to four days.

By Monday evening, 170 cremations had been done in the State, including 93 in the Kedarnath Valley, 23 in Chamoli, and 24 in Haridwar.

Mr. Duggal said C-130 Hercules aircraft tried to undertake relief operations twice on Monday but bad weather prohibited the aircraft from delivering material to the required areas in Kedarnath. There were 74 people in Kedarnath in Rudraprayag district to undertake cremations and to do other legal work. Due to bad weather, no rations were delivered to these people for the past three days.

District Magistrate of Rudraprayag Dilip Jawalkar said, “No ration has been supplied to the teams in Kedarnath for three days now. We will try to fulfil their requirements by Tuesday.”

Source: The Hindu, DT. July 9, 2013.