PM meets Uttarakhand MPs and assures them of centre’s fullest cooperation in Rishiganga tragedy

Sunil Negi February 8, 2021

94 1 minute read

The prime minister Narendra Modi today met the Uttarakhand members of parliament of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha in his parliament house chamber to discuss the situation arising out of the Rishi Ganga glacial breach tragedy and assured of the central government’s all possible help and support to cope with the critical situation.

The prime minister had earlier spoken to the Uttarakhand chief minister several times expressing his severe concern and assured of the union governments total support, instructing the government machinery to expedite rescue n relief operations which are being carried out on a war footing with the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat camping at the tragedy site monitoring the relief n rescue operations with NDRF, ITBP, SDRF, police and army teams actively involved in rescuing several persons stuck inside the tunnels including retrieving twenty dead bodies.

The union home minister Amit Shah and the national BJP chief J. P. Nadda were also present in the meeting convened by the prime minister who is in regular contact with Uttarakhand CM.

Those present in the meeting were Almora MP n former union state minister Ajay Tamta, Nainital MP Ajay Bhatt, Tehri Garhwal MP Maharani Raj Lakshmi, Rajya Sabha MPs Anil Baluni and Naresh Bansal.

The Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pradeep Tamta, Pauri Garhwal MP Tirath Singh Rawat were not present in the meeting.

Pauri Garhwal MP Tirath Singh Rawat was absent as he was in Rishi Ganga valley of the tragic incident inspecting the area.

The prime minister while assuring the MPs of the union government’s total support helping the victims by carrying out the relief and rescue operations on war footing said that the ITBP, NDRF, SDRF, Army and the state police is doing its best to safely evacuate the victims n those trapped inside the tunnel.

He also lauded the state government’s best efforts and said that the relief work is going on satisfactorily ensuring that each and every victim is being adequately safeguarded n evacuated.

It may be recalled that as per the latest news reports, about 202 people are still missing and twenty people have died, most of them inside the two n a half kilometre long tunnels of NTPC’s Tapovan Vishnugad hydropower project including eleven inhabitants of the adjoining villages viz Raini n two other villages.

The Uttarakhand government has announced Rs 4 lakhs and the PM Rs 2 lakh to each of the bereaved families of the deceased with Rs 50000 to those injured grievously.

The chief minister, Uttarakhand, Trivendra Singh Rawat, district magistrate of Chamoli Swati Bhadoria, The DG police Uttarakhand Ashok Agrawal, senior police officials relief and rescue teams are all doing their best to safely evacuate those trapped inside the tunnels and under the silt n muck of the flash floods.

The relief materials are also being supplied to the affected villagers of 14 villages by helicopters who have been completely cut of due to the total destruction of four swinging bridges in Malari.