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Uttarakhand flash floods: Amit Shah to make a statement in Rajya Sabha
Union home minister Amit Shah is scheduled to make a statement in Rajya Sabha at 11:30am over the disaster in Chamoli district.
Union home minister Amit Shah will apprise the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday about the ongoing rescue operations in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district after a glacier broke in the region and sent water and debris down a mountain in a disaster that has left at least 26 people dead and more than 170 others are missing. Shah is scheduled to make a statement in Rajya Sabha at 11:30am over the disaster in Chamoli district.
Meanwhile, Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Tuesday conducted an aerial survey of areas affected by the glacier burst in Chamoli. He also visited the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) hospital in Joshimath, Chamoli where injured people have been admitted. "Twelve people, who were rescued from the tunnel on February 7, are admitted here. They have complained of body ache as they were hanging on an iron bar for three to four hours fearing water and debris. Doctors said they will recover soon," Rawat said, according to news agency ANI.
Personnel of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and ITBP along with members of other rescue teams are looking for those trapped in the tunnel in Chamoli's Tapovan. "The operation was carried out the entire night and is under progress. A lot of debris has been removed. We have not been able to establish any contact till now," Aparna Kumar, ITBP Dehradun's deputy inspector general (DIG) Sector HQ, was quoted as saying by ANI.
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Rescue personnel also carried out search and relief operations in Chamoli's Lata, Malaria, Jugaju and Juwagwar villages late on Monday night. The civil administration also built a temporary helipad in the Lata to facilitate the operations. Troops of ITBP's 8th battalion distributed 87 dry ration packets, provided by the administration, among Jugaju and Juwagwar villages. These villages are around 7 kilometers away from the helipad made in Lata village.
Many homes were washed away, two dams were damaged, more than a dozen villages were cut off and crucial road links and bridges that connect far-flung areas in the mountainous region were snapped by the surging waters on Sunday.
