While the Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee claimed to have set up 70 disaster relief camps in different areas to provide food and water to the rescued people, a driver who spent two days without food and water, claimed otherwise. Pravesh Sharma, a driver, who was stranded at Sonprayag after the calamity hit the State, narrated a heart-rending story that would make one cry.
Sharma, a resident of Bareilly, arrived in Dehradun on Monday morning from Sonprayag. He said, “I spent days on biscuits. By Wednesday, I ran short of money. I asked for money from passersby, and one of them gave me Rs 50 with which I bought biscuits to survive.”
He further narrated that the relief sent by the State Government reached Sonprayag on Friday. He got a food packet. As the rescue teams informed him that he might leave, he immediately proceeded towards Dehradun. He cried for the passengers whom he had ferried to Kedarnath as they were all still missing.
He claimed that he could not find even a single camp along the way though locals did offer him some foods. “I am alive. But it is very painful that the passengers I transported are still missing. I pray to God for their safe return. May all of them be safe,” Sharma said.
He said that several volunteers were extending help to the people being rescued. “Why don’t politicians start ‘ground-level’ supportIJ I didn’t see any camp of the political party along the road,” Sharma said, adding that making statements while sitting in the air conditioned rooms and delivering at the ground were two different things.
When contacted, Uttarakhand PCC spokesperson Rajeev Maharshi said, “The Congress has set up around 70 camps at different locations in the disaster affected areas and railway and bus stations in the state capital and Haridwar. The people are being offered food and water there. Congress workers are extending them all sorts of support.” He said that a relief camp has been set up Jolly Grantairport, Dehradun railway and bus stations and various other locations. He did not forget mentioning that All India Congress Committee has sent 125 trucks loaded with edible items and food grains to the disaster affected areas.