Dehradun, July 13, 2013: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna on Friday allayed fears of any impending calamity due to the formation of a 500 square metres-lake at Satopanth about 30 km from Badrinath.

“The outflow from the lake is normal and is no cause for alarm,” Mr. Bahuguna said adding that experts at the Uttarakhand Space Application Centre and the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology here also saw no danger from the lake.

“The local civil and Indo-Tibetan Border Police officials have made an aerial survey of the lake and are keeping a round-the-clock vigil,” Mr. Bahuguna said.

The State Congress president and Disaster Relief Minister, Yashpal Arya, who visited Guptkashi on Friday said the priority of the government was to re-establish road and telecommunication connectivity in the rain-ravaged areas, besides supplying food and other essential goods.

“The rain-hit areas in Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Tehri, Bageshwar and Pithoragarh district have suffered very heavy damage. A large number of roads, pathways, agricultural fields, houses, shops, hotels, lodges and bridges have been washed away. Our priority is to first provide food supplies to the victims and simultaneously restore roads, telecommunications, power and drinking water to the hundreds of disaster-hit villages’, Mr. Arya told The Hindu .

He said the relief material was sent to many areas by helicopters and road on Friday as the weather was quite clear.

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Chief Minister Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri expressed dismay over the Centre giving additional quota of wheat to Uttarakhand at Rs. 20 per kg and rice at Rs. 26 per kg, while it had given the same to Uttar Pradesh at Rs. 4.15 and Rs. 5.65 per kg respectively. “This only shows the step-motherly treatment of the Centre towards the calamity-hit people of Uttarakhand,” Mr. Khanduri said.

A 60-member team of the National Disaster Response Force reached Kedarnath with heavy equipment to excavate bodies buried under slush or inside buildings. Post-mortem tests will be conducted on the bodies and their DNA samples collected before cremating them, Rudraprayag District Magistrate Dilip Jawalkar said.

Civil authorities have sought the army’s help to establish an alternative road to Kedarnath as the existing 14 km route was washed away during the June 16-17 deluge and landslides. The new route is likely to follow the alignment from Sonprayag-Gomkar-Dev Vishnu-Dhungaj Giri-Kedarnath and will be about 20 km long and pass over an altitude of over 13,000 ft, the officials said.

Source: The Hindu, DT. July 13, 2013.