Army and NDRF teams, both on foot and in boats, have recovered 25 bodies including seven Armymen from the slush and debris of the flash flood which swept through Sikkim’s Teesta river, officials said on Friday.
The flood which was triggered by a cloudburst in the early hours of Wednesday also resulted in a large number of people going missing.
Officials said 143 are still missing though some 2,413 people have been rescued and are in shelters.
Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang announced an ex-gratia compensation of `4 lakh to the families of those who died in the flash flood in the State. He also declared an immediate relief of `2,000 each to all those who are being sheltered in relief camps.
“There have been damages worth thousands of crores of rupees. We cannot give exact details about damages, it will be revealed once a committee is formed and it completes its analysis. Our first priority is to save those who are stranded and provide them immediate relief,” he told PTI Video.
“Road connectivity between districts has been cut off and bridges have been washed away. Communication in North Sikkim has been severely affected,” Tamang said.
Of the 23 army personnel who had gone missing from Bardang area, the bodies of seven have been recovered from different areas downstream while one had been rescued earlier.
Search for the remaining is continuing both in Sikkim and the neighbouring northern part of West Bengal through which the Teesta river flows, the chief minister said.
The Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority (SSDMA) said in its latest bulletin that 25 people have died so far and 143 have gone missing. While 15 people, including six army personnel, died in Pakyong district, Mangan and Gangtok districts accounted for four and six deaths respectively, the SSDMA said.
Nearly 25,100 people have been affected by the calamity.
The chief minister said that he has spoken with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, President Droupadi Murmu and other Union ministers.