There is an urgent need of few new relief camps of Jharkhand in Uttarakhand for kith and kin of traceless disaster victims feel senior official of State Civil Aviation Department. Since Rudryaprayag and Uttarkashi districts suffered the most, Jharkhand support camps should have reporting & reception counters which will extend help especially against forgery by local people with relatives of victims of Jharkhand, they say.
Principal secretary of Civil Aviation Department Sajal Chakraverty who headed the Uttarakhand rescue team of seven members from Jharkhand said that groups of young Government employees who have been recently recruited as secretariat assistants may be sent on the mission as volunteers. “They are energetic and physically fit and they should serve as volunteers in these camps and provide assistance to the family of missing victims in tracing them. Another major issue is the problem of death certificate issue. This comes with myriad problems like loss of dead and decayed dead bodies. This camp ought to inspect on claims for compensation of loss as several claims are false for monetary benefit,” he said.
The Principal Secretary in a tell-tale story discussed on the various aspects of the possible ways of reconstruction project of Uttarakhand and the rescue efforts of the Jharkhand team there. As around 22 villages are worst affected in the calamity, the Uttarakhand Government is seeking help from States with small teams. Each team will be assigned particular village for reconstruction and development work. Jharkhand may get a village for reconstruction, for which it requires 20 days of action plan.
According to Chakraverty the rescue operation was carried for 14-15 days in which 63-67 people from Jharkhand were rescued and total of 300 people from various States were rescued from Gochar-Badrinath rescue operation. “I totally disagree on the blot on Uttarakhand Government on rescue, recovery and reconstruction issue and I find it politically motivated. Uttrakhand Government has delivered an outstanding performance in low light by providing co-operation and liberation to individual to carry out rescue work,” he said.
“There was a need of on spot co-ordination in Uttarakhand and I got a humanitarian call from my heart to go and help people stuck over there so we left with the team of seven members (Sajal Chakraverty, Captain SP Sinha, Captain VK Singh, Captain Bens, Nagendra Singh, Amit Raghuwanshi and Captain Solanki ) for Uttarakhand rescue operation via lucknow and landed Shahastradhara,” he said. Two choppers were engaged in Uttarakhand for rescue operations of Jharkhandis. The helicopters were supposed to cooperate with the Uttarakhand Government in the rescue operations while the team will try to trace missing people and provide aid to them.
“Uttarakhand Government had proper management of food, accommodation and medical help for the people and there were stalls of food & water from many states in Shahastradhara .We lightened the aircraft by supplying the helpful goods from Jharkhand there,” he further added. Kedarnath suffered highest causalities though people were stuck in Badrinath. Gochar which lies between Kedar and Badri valley was the main rescue operation point. Jharkhand team left for Gochar to carry out rescue operation but the bad weather has caused disturbance in their efforts for sometime later it was resumed soon after the weather conditions improved.
“In Gochar rescue and medical teams were present. Doctors were inspecting victims and victims were taken to Joshimath from where way was clear for victims. In Gochar 25 civil and army helicopters were operating. Every state had their camp especially Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Punjab and Maharastra. Food, water and medical aid were in abundance. Gochar was well-connected with transportation system. We rescued people from Dhanbad , Ranchi, East Singhbhum & Saraikela-Kharsawana and Dumka labourers who migrated to Uttrakhand for work. We have been assigned the task of rescuing the victims stranded irrespective of the place they come from,” said Chakraverty. He further added that there were depressing scenes of lost, injured and dead group of people.
Sajal Chakarverty and his team stayed in the calamity stricken place till almost 95 per cent of people were rescued and Jharkhand Helpline number received way less number of calls that assured them that most of the people from Jharkhand has been rescued.