Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi will on Wednesday make an aerial survey of rain-ravaged areas in Uttarkhand where flash floods have claimed over a hundred lives and left thousands of pilgrims for Himalayan shrines stranded. Rains for more than four days specifically continuos down pour for more than 56 hours has enhanced the flow of rivers thus give rise to flash floods and landslips, the monsoon fury left more than thousand persons dead, even as 2700 pilgrims and locals were rescued from Rudraprayag and Chamoli districts. Some chopper were pressed into actions and many persons were brought to the safe places. Many villages have been submerged, SSB academy of paramilitary force near Srinagar of Uttrakhand and many localities have caved with mud entering the campus and destroying habitable conditions. Kedarnath temple campus is badly damaged more than seventy percent where more than thousands of people lost their life. Northern states came forward to render help to the victims offering are UP offer 25 Cr, MP aids 5 Cr, Gujarat offer 5 Cr, Rajasthan with 2 Cr and many more funds to flow.
Disaster Management authorities said in Chamoli that eight bodies were recovered by villagers late last evening from Bansinarayan area of Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary.
They seem to have perished on Sunday itself in the downpour that lashed the area while they were in search of Kira Jari, a rare aphrodisiac found in the alpine grassland of the sanctuary.
Chamoli Additional District Magistrate Sanjay Kumar said 1500 pilgrims and locals have been evacuated so far from Ghanghariya, Duendhar and Pulna from near Hemkund Sahib in the district to Joshimath relief camps.
With the improvement in weather many more stranded pilgrims are likely to be evacuated to safety by the evening, he said adding evacuation of pilgrims from Badrinath is next on their agenda where 12000 persons are still stranded.
1200 persons have also been evacuated from Kedarnath, an official in Rudraprayag said.
The officials said evacuating people to safer places is their priority as recovery of bodies can be taken up later.
A total of 110 people have been killed in Uttarakhand. Rescue operations were also on in rain-ravaged tribal Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh for the second day on Wednesday and two IAF and one state chopper is evacuating stranded people at various points in Kinnaur district and adjoining Kaza area of Spiti.
About 140 people were rescued yesterday from Sangla Valley and Rekong Peo and dropped at Rampur and helicopter sorties have been planned for Pooh and Kaza also.
A large number of people including a Doordarshan team and some other reporters was stranded at Pooh, which received snow and rains on Sunday and Monday and a chopper is being sent to bring them.
"The exact number of people stranded at various locations was not known but priority is to evacuate tourists and the aged and ailing persons first," HP Principal Secretary (Home), Tarun Sridhar said.
The situation created by the heavy rains and floods in the state was discussed at the Congress Core Group meeting on Wednesday morning.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters after the meeting that the situation in Uttarakhand is better than what it was on Tuesday and Food Minister K V Thomas is taking steps to rush more food grains to the flood-hit Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
"The objective is to ensure that food grains and food packets are available to the affected people. On the food issue, a number of decisions were taken," he said.
On the steps being initiated by the government to provide succour to the victims, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said that IAF helicopters have been deployed to evacuate stranded people from Gaurikund in Uttarakhand while a control centre has been established in Badrinath.
ITBP has given shelter to about 6,400 people at Joshimath, he said.
"Fourteen teams comprising 540 persons of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in Uttarakhand. 62,790 people are stranded in Uttarakhand. 5000 people have been rescued by the Army," the Home Minister said.
Both Dr. Singh and Gandhi had on Tuesday written to Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna and the government has assured him all assistance in rescue and relief operations.
Gandhi, who had also spoken to Shinde and Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, has sought "timely and prompt" relief measures in the two states.
Shinde said that Gandhi and the Prime Minister will be undertaking the aerial survey this afternoon.
The Prime Minister had on Tuesday directed agencies of the central government to assist in rescue and relief operations.
The Congress President had on Tuesday asked the two Chief Ministers and the Home Minister to ensure that arrangements for communication and travel were made for the stranded tourists and visitors from other states.
"The (Core Group) meeting was confined to the emergency relief operations in flood-affected areas... We were briefed about the various relief measures by both the Home Minister and the Food Minister," Chidambaram said.
He said that while food grain stocks are available in both Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, the food minister is taking steps to rush more food grains for these states.
A statement on the relief measures will be made by the Prime Minister's Office, he said, adding that the situation is better and some roads have been reopened by the Army, ITBP and the Border Roads Organisation.
"The number of people evacuated would by now be 10,000. The relief operations are underway," the Finance Minister said
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