NEW DELHI, July 11, 2013: Countering National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) vice-chairman M Shashidhar Reddy's claim that around 11,600 people were "missing" after the Uttarakhand floods, the state government on Wednesday clarified that the provisional list of "missing persons"' compiled by it includes no more than 5,360 names. 

The official untraced persons' list, being given final touches, will be released by the government on July 15. These missing would be "presumed dead", paving the way for release of the Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia payment to their kin. 

"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 also the Centre's nodal officer for coordinating rescue and relief operations in the state, has found only 5,360 missing after a detailed, four-pronged verification exercise," said a senior government official monitoring the work of Uttarakhand missing persons' cell. 

The official wondered why NDMA vice-chairman did not check with the state government or even his NDMA colleague overseeing rescue operations on the ground, before going public with the "grossly inaccurate" figure quoted by an NGO. 

Reddy, however, stuck to his point. He told TOI on Wednesday that though he has full faith in the methodology adopted by state government in arriving at the actual figure of missing persons, he wants that the figures provided by certain NGOs - that was also used in one of the UN reports — should not be ignored. 

Reddy said, "The NGOs peg the figures at around 11,000 which I had first mentioned on July 1. This figure may not be correct. But, this is something which we should not ignore". 

Uttar Pradesh accounts for the largest number of missing at 2,036 people in the official list put together by Uttarakhand government. Incidentally, though the list was expected to be finalized by July 8, the deadline could not be met as UP government has been vacillating on the exact of number of missing. UP chief secretary Javed Usmani first sent a list of 726 people missing from across the state, but then revised the figure to 1,550. Only on Tuesday, a new list was received from UP putting the number of its missing at 2,036. 

Officials from the state claimed adequate care has been taken to identify the missing. A massive verification exercise was undertaken, covering 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 paramilitary 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, based on which the list is being updated on a daily basis. 

Source: The Times of India, DT. July 11, 2013.