By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 8 Aug: Secretary, Disaster Management, Vinod Kumar Suman paid a courtesy call on Governor Lt Gen Gurmit Singh (Retd) at the Raj Bhawan here on Thursday and provided information about the quick response and relief and rescue operations in relation to the disaster that occurred in the Kedarnath area in the past few days.
The Secretary informed the Governor that, on 31 July, due to heavy rains in Kedarghati, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami continuously monitored the rescue operation to safely rescue the pilgrims stranded at different places on the Kedarnath trek. Relief and rescue operations have been successfully completed on 6 July, in which more than 15 thousand passengers and local people have been safely rescued by air and pedestrian routes.
The Secretary said that, due to heavy rains, the foot and motor routes were blocked due to landslides at 29 places. A large number of government properties including drinking water and electricity lines were also damaged. Telecommunication services were also disrupted at some places. He stated that work is being done on a war footing to repair the damaged roads. He added that the passengers were rescued and taken to safe places by 5 helicopters including one MI and one Chinook provided by the Government of India. Apart from about 1200 government rescuers, local people also cooperated fully in the relief and rescue operations. He added that heli- services have been resumed for Kedarnath from 7 August.
On this occasion, the Governor said that the promptness with which this campaign was carried out under the leadership of the Chief Minister is commendable. He said that despite adverse weather conditions, this campaign was completed in a completely planned manner, for which all the personnel involved deserve appreciation. The Governor said that there is a need to learn lessons from such challenges for the future.
