Cabinet panel on Uttarakhand formed

PM announces Rs 1,000cr for relief; World Bank, ADB may give Rs 3,000 cr.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday constituted a cabinet committee to oversee the reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts of flood-ravaged Uttarakhand.


Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna had said recently it would take at least three years to rebuild large parts of the Garhwal region that had been severely affected by the flood.

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The new panel will provide “broad guidance to reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts in Uttarakhand, and take such decisions, as may be required”, said a notification issued by the cabinet secretariat.

Ministers AK Antony, Sharad Pawar, P Chidambaram, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sushilkumar Shinde, Oscar Fernandes, Kapil Sibal, Girija Vyas, Jairam Ramesh and Harish Rawat are members of the panel.

Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Uttarakhand CM Vijay Bahuguna and National Disaster Management Authority vice-chairman M Shashidhar Reddy are the permanent invitees to the cabinet committee.

The Prime Minister has announced Rs 1,000 crore as disaster relief. And the state is also expecting assistance of around Rs 3,000 crore from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank for reconstruction work. Sources added the cabinet committee would also take a call on how to spend the money.

In another incident, four persons were killed when an earth-moving machine slipped into a ditch while repairing a road at Dwarikhal Development Block in Pauri Garhwal.