‘Nothing I’ve seen as miner compares to scenes here’ Karnataka’s information minister Santosh Lad, who has been deputed to flood-hit Uttarakhand to oversee rescue and relief measures for stranded pilgrims from the state, reports from ground zero Tapasya Mitra Mazumder Mail this page Print this page Translate this page Rate me.... Share Share Share Share Posted On Wednesday, June 26, 2013 at 05:22:25 AM Since the last four days, I have been trying to get to Badrinath. I am the first minister from any government to have managed to get here today (Tuesday); there is no one else. I had to come here at all costs, because I am carrying essential medicines for people from Karnataka who are stuck here and in desperate need of them. I was on stand-by at the IT park just outside Dehradun with a loaded helicopter for two days before I could reach here. The helicopter could not take off as visibility was just 100 metres. The situation in this region is unimaginable. It has rained so much at the starting point of the Mandakini that the river has carried silt for 200 km, and bodies have floated down for 300 km. The army is doing extraordinary work, it must be the greatest relief and rescue operation ever, I think. I am a mining man, I have dealt with stopping landslides all my life. The situation here is beyond anything anyone can comprehend or could have anticipated. Badrinath’s weather at the moment is very foggy and cloudy, with temperatures as low as 12 degrees. Army choppers have been deployed and they carry round 20 people per trip. They are all being relocated to Dehradun. The army has ferried fuel for refueling the choppers. I learnt that soldiers are even lying down and forming a human bridge for people to get across. Local villagers have all left for safer places like Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh and Bangra in Uttar Pradesh as there are fears of an epidemic. About 250 people are still stranded here in Badrinath. After the locals left, food and water has become very expensive. I will talk to the Uttarakhand chief minister and home minister today to request them to send relief items to those stranded. These people have been deprived of food and water. The mobile towers have gone in the floods and they have been unable to communicate with their families back home. They are all psychologically very weak. Some of the women broke down and started crying on seeing me. I recognised some of the people from Hospet and Hubli. They were moved to tears on seeing me and felt reassured. In fact, I too was in tears seeing so many bodies here. This was the first time I was seeing so many dead people. There were bodies lying by the roadside in many places. I got down and started talking to some of the people who were crying over the bodies of their loved ones. Just listening to their tales of horror moved me to tears. It was so heart-rending to learn how someone had lost their parents, while others had lost their children and newborns. In between all this, I heard stories of robbing and snatching of relief provisions from trucks by gangs of goons and looters. I have brought medicines and warm clothes with me on this trip and I am planning to fly in some more from Karnataka because what I have got will not be enough. There are a lot of people suffering from asthma, heart problems and diabetes and we are looking at relocating them first. I am just here to assure everyone that all is not lost. There is not much to do here except for providing relief provisions as the military has taken control of most of the rescue operations, except maybe in some very remote areas.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 04:19:11 +0000
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