A ray of hope appears in eyes of Harvinder Singh as a police officer draws attention of the waiting kin of the stranded and missing persons to announce names of persons rescued from Kedarnath on Sunday. He attentively listens to the announcement, but to no avail. The list didn’t include the names of his kinfolk who were last located at Kedarnath on June 16. As the announcement concluded, his hope turned into despair.
Singh, a resident of village Vadala in Amritsar of Punjab, reached Dehradun on Sunday morning to trace his four family members, who left for Hemkund Sahib on June 8. Singh reach the police line where a helpline has been set up to extend help to the kin of stranded persons. He possessed a picture of his brother which he handed over to the police personnel at control room. He pleaded with them to help him in tracing his brother and members of the family.
With moist eyes, he said, “Four members of my family are missing. I have no idea about them. My elder brother Baljinder Singh (40), his wife Manjeet Kaur (32), their son Sonu (8) and daughter Jyoti Kaur (6) have been missing for the last six days.”
Tears rolled down his eyes, when he talked about his missing brother, nephew and niece. “A farmer by profession, my brother always tried to fulfill all my wishes. He left no stone unturned in providing facilities to me since my childhood.”
They last spoke to him from Kedar Valley area on last Sunday. Since then there has been no contact with them. On June 15, the four members left Hemkund Sahib for Kedarnath. “I am trying hard to contact them. But all my efforts turned futile,” Singh said. He said that he would wait for missing members for the next two days and would decide further course of action thereafter only.
like him, several other kin are waiting for their missing near and dear with the hope that they would return safe. Moreover, Punjab transport has sent around 70 buses to transport the passengers rescued from different disaster-affected areas to the State.