Missing people are not dead : Uttarakhand CM
Dehradun: Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna on Monday refused to declare dead the 5,748 persons missing after the June 16 calamity in Uttarakhand, saying the mission to find them will not be given up.
Addressing a press conference along with Union Minister of State for Planning and Parliamentary Affairs, Rajiv Shukla, the Chief Minister said that the search for finding the missing will go on.
The Chief Minister had said last week that those who are still missing will be presumed dead if they remain untraced till July 15. “A total of 5748 persons are missing till date since the tragedy devastated large parts of the state about a month ago,” he said, adding 934 out of them are from Uttarakhand.
Out of Rs five lakh to be given to the next of kin of the missing Rs 3.5 lakh will be paid by the Centre and the rest by the respective state governments, Bahuguna said.
Admitting that debris removal at Kedarnath shrine was being badly affected by inclement weather, the chief minister said that the NDRF has not been able to drop equipment needed to clear nearly five feet of debris lying in the shrine premises due to incessant rains.
