As two thousand pilgrims from Andhra Pradesh remain stranded in the flood and landslide areas of Uttarakhand State, especially Uttarkashi, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy spoke to his counterpart in Uttarakhand and sought his help in moving the stranded people to safer places.
Andhra Pradesh pilgrims, most of them from coastal districts, had gone on a pilgrimage to the four Hindu holy places including Gangotri and Yamnotri, the origins of the two major rivers when they were caught flash floods caused by heavy rains in the region.
Around 2,000 tourists were stranded in the area for the last four days as the roads were closed due to the landslides. Some of the stranded people contacted the local media over phone and poured out their woes. They said that they had no access to food and safe drinking water and children were the worst-affected.
“We are confined to the buses as roads have been washed away,” one of the stranded tourists informed the mediapersons over phone. He said he was stuck while returning from Yamnotri to Rishikesh. The group from Andhra Pradesh had already visited Badrinath and Kedarnath.
Andhra pilgrims were among more than 40,000 people stranded due to the floods in the State. These people were stranded in the hilly areas while travelling on foot to reach the holy place or returning from there.
The devastating caused by the rains and floods has claimed 16 lives so far and Uttarakhand Government has sought the assistance from Army for relief measures.
Amid the growing concern about the safety of the tourists, Andhra Govt swung into action and officials were in touch with Uttarakhand Government. River Ganga and Bagirithi were in spate as there was no let up in rains.
Alleging that the State Government had failed to come to the rescue of the stranded pilgrims from the State, leaders of Opposition Telugu Desam said that the Chief Minister was only issuing statement. Party leader D Umamaheshwara Rao asked what the Union Tourism Minister Chiranjeevi was doing while the people from his own State were suffering.