CM visits cloudburst affected Ghanvi village

Shimla, Aug 18 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today visited the cloud-burst-affected Ghanvi village to share the grief and agony faced by the villagers who lost their kin and homes in cloudburst area, which washed away 18 houses on August 14.

He expressed condolence to the bereaved families on behalf of his government as well, saying the villagers had suffered immensely and their losses were irreparable. He also prayed to the Almighty to grant peace to the departed souls and strength to the bereaved families to bear the loss.

Addressing villagers, the Chief Minister also said that on receiving information about cloudburst, the State Government had rushed relief and rescue operation team to the affected area and roped in the Army, ITBP and BSF to carry out the relief and rescue operations on war footing.

He said that senior officers had camped at the site to oversee the operation and provide rehabilitation to the affected families without any loss of time.

He said that he was deeply aggrieved at the loss of 52 inhabitants of the village, who could not be traced after the cloudburst.

Only nine bodies had so far been recovered and heavy machinery had been deployed in the search operation being carried out for the remaining people at the incident site and downstream.

He said that the State Government would extend full cooperation and assistance for the rehabilitation of the affected families.

Mr Singh said that affected families would be provided relief over and above the revised relief manual of the State Government, keeping in view the gravity of the incident and the damage caused to the villagers.

He said that alternate sites were being identified to rehabilitate the survivors of the incident at safer places so that they were not subjected to any other such natural calamities in future.

The debris would be removed from incident sites and the land reclaimed for the bonafide use of the same by the stakeholders, Mr Singh said, adding that his Government had recently revised the relief from Rs 75,000 to Rs. 1 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased and the same amount would be disbursed to their legal heirs.

The State Government had set up the relief and rescue camp in the village to provide cooked food till alternative arrangements were made for rehabilitation of the affected people.

He said that blankets, tarpaulin and utensils were distributed among the affected families to help them restart life afresh and overcome agony of incident with the passage of time.

UNI