U'khand: 200 villagers shifted to relief camps in rain-hit Pithoragarh

Rescue efforts with the help of a helicopter continued in the rain-hit areas of the Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district on Tuesday, with at least 200 villagers accommodated in two relief camps at Baram and Mawani in Bangapani sub-division.

Rescue efforts with the help of a helicopter  continued in the rain-hit areas of the Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district on Tuesday, with at least 200 villagers accommodated in two relief camps at Baram and Mawani in Bangapani sub-division.          "We have over 171 people in a relief camp at Baram and 29 at Mawani college campus at present while the helicopter provided by the state government is lifting the sick and injured to primary healthcare centres of Baram and Dharchula on a daily basis for the last three days," Pithoragarh District Magistrate  V K Jogdande said. Dharchula SDM and in charge of relief operations in the area said besides the death of 18 people in the cloudburst incidents, 40 families have become homeless with their houses washed away by swollen rivers, rivulets or landslides over the past fortnight.

"Besides giving relief money to each family, we are providing every facility to the victims in relief camps but we have no idea where these homeless will go after the end of monsoon season," the SDM said. According to the SDM, the bridge on lifeline motor road of over 60 villages, from Jauljibi to Munsiyari, that had broken on July 28, is still to be erected and the nodal agency BRO has not yet delivered required machines on the spot.

we are repairing the local road by using PMGSY scheme machines as the BRO machines are still lying in Chiyalekh, where these have been dropped by helicopters,the SDM said. According to the official, the villages of Lumti, Chami, Mori, Jara Jibli, Gujri, Kauli, Bhaula,Tanga and Gaila have been badly affected by the cloudburst.

"Our search teams comprising SDRF, NDRF and local police personnel are still searching three missing persons, one each from the villages of Bhyola, Jara Jibli, and Tanga," said the official. Heavy rains had triggered house collapse incidents in several villages of Bangapani and Munsyari sub-divisions of the district killing 18 people recently.  It had also washed away an important bridge near Lumti on Jauljibi-Munsiyari road resulting in disconnection of over 60 villages of the area from the district headquarters.