Wednesday, 24 August 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
Demanding an ex gratia payment of Rs 10 lakh to the family of the deceased and Rs 5 lakh to every affected family in the recent cloudburst triggered disaster in Uttarakhand, the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Karan Mahara has said that affected people should be shifted to safer places. In a letter written to the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, the PCC president said many people died while many others are reported missing in the cloudburst triggered disaster in Maldevta, Sarkhet in Dehradun, Tehri and Yamkeshwar of Pauri in July 20. Many houses were also damaged completely in the flash floods. There is no trace of a family even four days after the disaster in Sarkhet. He said that heavy rains have also blocked many roads in many districts due to which many villages have lost connection with the district headquarters. Alleging failure of the disaster management and mitigation department, the PCC president said that no preparation was made by the department even though the meteorology department had given an alert in advance.
Interacting with the media persons at the Congress headquarters on Tuesday, Mahara said that it is unfortunate that the state government is not able to give the number of missing people in the disaster. He said that the government has no figure of the dead persons also. Mahara said that many are reportedly missing from the hotels, resorts and other areas. He said that locals claim that many vehicles had fallen from the damaged bridge on the fateful night. Mahara said that it is really worrying that the authorities have failed to excavate the bodies of victims buried in the debris even after five days.
