NEW DELHI, July 10, 2013: Countering National Disaster Management Authority(NDMA) vice-chairman M Shashidhar Reddy claims that 11,600 persons were "missing" after the Uttarakhand floods, the state government has clarified that the provisional number of "missing" stands at no more than 5,360 persons.

The latter figure was quoted from an official 'missing persons' list being finalised by the state government for release on July 15. These missing would be "presumed dead" and would be eligible for the Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia compensation announced for each person killed in last month's tragedy.

"Reddy is possibly citing a figure based on an unscientific estimate by NGOs. But the reality is that the Uttarakhand government, in conjunction with NDMA member V K Duggal who is the Centre's nodal officer for coordinating rescue and relief operations in the state, has found only 5,360 missing so far, based on a detailed, four-pronged verification exercise.

Uttar Pradesh accounts for the largest number of missing - 2,036 persons - in the official list. Incidentally, though the Uttarakhand government's list was expected to be finalised by July 8, it was delayed as UP government has been constantly updating its missing list. It first sent a list of 726 persons missing from the state, but then changed this figure to 1,550. Only yesterday, a new list was received from UP putting the number of missing at 2,036.

Senior officials monitoring efforts of the Uttarakhand missing persons cell wondered why NDMA vice-chairman did not check with the state government or his NDMA colleague overseeing rescue operations on the ground, before going public with the "grossly inaccurate" figure quoted by an NGO.

Officials from the state claimed much detail had gone into preparing the official missing persons list. To guard against any slip ups in identifying the "missing" or "presumed dead", a massive exercise was undertaken to verify the missing. This included aerial survey of the affected regions, verification of locals by the village patwari or panchayat, physical checks on the ground, tracking the missing/traced on the net through social media networks, and even a confirmation call to all cells active in the affected places between June 14 and 19.

The missing were divided into four categories - tourists/pilgrims, locals, registered labour and unregistered labour. Even though the rescue operation is complete, the authorities ensured that the rescue forces of the Army and para-military re-surveyed the villages for any "miracle" survivors.

An interactive forum is active on the Uttarakhand website and social networks like Facebook and Twitter to report missing/traced on the state government website and social networks to report missing and traced. The Uttarakhand authorities have secured records of calls made between June 14 and 19 and will call back these cell numbers to know if those who exchanged these calls had reached home safely. If not, these were enrolled as "missing".

The locals were being traced with the help of the village panchayats or patwaris.

While registered migrant workers - mule-owners, pithoos, etc - were traced with the help of the relevant registering authority, the unregistered workers - such as tea-stall workers, beggars, sadhus -- were verified through interviews with the locals at their repsective places of work.

Those still untraced after this massive verification exercise will be classified according to gender and duly certified as "missing". These would then be presumed dead, paving the way for release of compensation to their kin after July 15.

Source: The Times of India, DT. July 10, 2013.