UTTARAKHAND BREAKING NEWS

Uttarakhand: Sonia, Rahul’s relief trucks run out of fuel, get stranded

The Congress took another hit in the face of the Uttarakhand tragedy with a major embarrassment. The relief trucks that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi flagged off have run out of fuel and have reportedly got stranded in Dehradun.

Reports suggest that the relief material they were carrying will now have to be sold off. According to reports, the truck drivers were not given enough money to buy fuel and when they contacted the local Congress office, they were given no help.

CNN IBN reports: “Each truck driver was reportedly given only Rs 2,000 to buy fuel for the entire journey which was exhausted during the drive to Dehradun.”

Apart from flagging of these trucks ceremonially, Sonia Gandhi has asked all Congress legislators to donate a month’s salary. The report says:

The Congress President had also directed all party MPs and MLAs to donate their one month salary for relief work in the flood-ravaged Uttarakhand as the magnitude of the flash flood tragedy continued to unfold taking the death toll in the rain fury to 1,000.

NEW DELHI: Now Uttarakhand Rescue operations focusing on Badrinath where around 2,750 tourists and pilgrims await evacuation while the airlift of those stuck at Harsil in Uttarkashi may take a few more days due to cloudy weather.

Army was able to move some 2,000 persons out of Badrinath by road while air operations remained affected by bad weather. Some 600 persons were moved out of Harsil and another 500-odd remain.

Army and paramilitary personnel were able to move a few hundred people out of Badrinath by road to a point some 5 km away from where transport provided by the Border Roads Organization has been made available.

In Harsil, however, there is no option other than airlifts as too many bridges linking the town on the Bhagirathi to lower regions have been washed away or damaged. Those who remain in Harsil include a couple of Italian nationals.

Airlifts from both destinations progressed slowly, with chopper pilots hampered by weather as well as time consumed in loading the craft as some of those being rescued were carrying luggage that they did not want to leave behind.

The weather reports indicate light rain but clouds and mist make flying a potential hazardous operation. Chopper pilots are being more careful in the wake of Tuesday’s crash that took place in inclement weather.

The review of rescue operations on Wednesday saw reports of some alleged water contamination of the Mandakini river due to dead bodies being discussed. The reports are being verified although the possibility of contamination in swift flowing water is not high.

The efforts of rescuers have become more challenging with local population also seeking to leave affected areas along with outsiders.

Rescue personnel are also having to deal with requests from CMs and political persons seeking priority rescue of groups or individuals. Authorities were struggling to deal with requests to evacuate a group of sadhus from an influential mutt in Kerala.

Officials said there was no criticality in the situation at Harsil or Badrinath, but at the current rate, the evacuation from the latter town may take up to 15 days unless more people agree to move out by road

The bodies of 12 people have been recovered so far, but government sources said there was slim chance of anyone having survived the crash.

Elite Garuda commandos slithered down ropes from helicopters to reach the crash site near Gaurikund and scanned the area for survivors and bodies all night. According to reports, the sturdy Russian-built Mi-17 V5 chopper – 80 of which were inducted only last year into the IAF – was completely charred. It belonged to a unit from the Barrackpore Air Force Station in West Bengal.

There were five Air Force personnel on the chopper including the commander, Wing Commander Darell Castalino, two Flight Lieutenants, a Junior Warrant Officer and a Sergeant, all of whom are believed to have died.

The other 15 people on board were paramilitary personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

The bodies are being brought to Gaurikund and will then be flown to Dehradun today.

Within minutes of the crash last evening, the Air Force said its rescue operations would continue, illustrating the heroism and sacrifice that has suffused its operations in Uttarakhand.

The Mi-17 chopper was on its way back from Kedarnath, the epicentre of the devastation caused by torrential rains in the hilly state, to Gauchar when it crashed. It had reportedly already made two sorties in the day. The area around Kedarnath is tough, inaccessible terrain and evacuations on foot have been impossible.

The risk under which the Air Force is flying through the treacherous terrain, air-lifting pilgrims and air-dropping commandos and soldiers to temporary camps was on display all of Tuesday. Each time the rain let up, or the cloud cover improved, helicopters would head out.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offered his condolences, saying “Our forces are conducting a heroic task in rescue and relief work in Uttarakhand. … Continuing their work would be the best homage to them,” he added.