Army officers among 76 dead in Uttarakhand floods

Chamoli (Uttarakhand) : At least 76 people, including two Army officers, have died in landslides triggered by pounding rains and gale in Uttarakhand since Saturday.

According to reports, a 47-member Army expedition team, on their way to Mt Kamet, had camped at Chamoli district on Monday. A glacier crashed one of the three camps, killing two officers.

On Tuesday, Congress President Sonia Gandhi visited the state, along with Defence Minister AK Antony and Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has sanctioned an ex-gratia of Rs one lakh to the next of kin of each of the deceased from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund and Rs 50,000 to those seriously injured in the floods.

On Monday, principal Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister regarding the unprecedented floods in Uttarakhand.

?Uttarakhand has been struck with an unprecedented disaster with incessant rains. In the last twenty-four hours more than 61 people have died from Almora (more than 34 casualties) to Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Nainital and other far-flung areas,? said the BJP in their memorandum.

The Government of India has sent six teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) for rescue and relief work in Uttarakhand.

Three teams comprising of 90 NDRF personnel along with 20 boats and other flood and rescue equipment have been deployed at Haridwar.

Other three teams comprising of 101 personnel along with 25 boats and other flood and rescue equipment have been deployed at Rishikesh.

As on date, Rs 87.49 crore is available with the State Government in their Calamity Relief Fund/State Disaster Response Fund account.

Almora district was worst struck by nature’s fury where maximum death reported due to cloudburst triggering landslides, house collapses and drowning since Saturday.

Almora District Magistrate Suvardhan and SP C D Pant, who are continuously overseeing the rescue operations with help of ITBP, Army, local police and officials, informed that after Saturday’s cloudburst, the Badi Balta and Devali villages bore the brunt of landslides.

The Kosi swelled after a sudden cloud burst in Almora. From one lakh 15 thousand cu secs early morning on Saturday, the water level rose to one and a half lakh cu secs by evening, resulting flooding in low lying areas.

The Jim Corbett National park also faced the wrath of the weather, forcing the travellers to change tour programmes. About a dozen resorts in the area have incurred heavy losses.