An apparent contradiction in the figure cited by the Centre and Uttarakhand Government in separate status reports submitted to the Supreme Court on Tuesday has exposed the lack of coordination in the ongoing rescue and relief operations in the State.
Presenting a summary of rescue and relief measures undertaken by the Army, Air Force, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), ITBP, SSB and State agencies, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Rakesh Khanna, who represented the Centre, informed the court that 96,500 people were evacuated by all concerned agencies till Sunday. Of this, the bulk (about 26,538) got rescued by ITBP followed by about 20,000 by Armed Forces and 6,214 people by NDRF.
The State’s action taken report presented a different picture altogether. State Secretary for Disaster Management Bhaskaranand in his report to the apex court said, “Approximately 80,000 people have been evacuated by 1,522 vehicles (buses and taxis).” The report further mentioned the role of Air Force aircrafts/helicopters, which helped evacuate 9,201 people to safer locations. In addition, private operators hired by the State Government rescued 5,000 people by carrying out 1,200 sorties.
Interestingly, if the State report is to be believed then the private operators have to their credit the chunk of air evacuation. In the Centre’s action taken summary, Air Force could manage only 1,189 sorties while Army carried out 419 sorties.
When these contradictions were pointed out by the PIl petitioner Ajay Bansal in court, the Vacation Bench of Justices AK Patnaik and Ranjan Gogoi posted the matter for Friday seeking further response of the State and Centre. Meanwhile, the bench directed all agencies to step up their activity.
According to the State, over 9,000 people are left to be evacuated and it would require 72 hours for their evacuation. The PIl petitioner represented by senior advocates MN Krishnamani and Kailash Vasudev highlighted a shortage of food items and essential supplies to the stranded pilgrims as State report stated only 50,000 bottles of water and biscuit packets along with 45,000 ready to eat food packets were available in affected areas. An ex-gratia cash relief of Rs2,000 is being provided to stranded people by the State in addition to free stay at Government rest houses.