Don't force people to walk long distances: SC to U'khand govt

New Delhi, June 28: The Supreme Court today asked the Uttarakhand government not to force people, caught in flash floods, to walk long distances and said that they should be air lifted to safer places.

"As far as practical, the state government should not force people to walk long distances," a bench of justices A K Patnaik and Ranjan Gogoi said.

The state government assured the apex court that rescue operations will be over by tomorrow. It said at present 1000 pilgrims are in Badrinath in a safe condition and there is no shortage of water, food materials there. The bench, after going through the report of the state government, posted the case for hearing on July 3.

The bench was hearing a PIL filed by lawyer Ajay Bansal, who has sought the apex court's directions to the Centre and state government to rescue people stranded in the flood hit areas in Uttarakhand. Earlier, on June 20, the court had directed the Centre and the state to make all out efforts to rescue thousands of people stranded there and to provide them food and drinking water.

It had also directed the governments to deploy sufficient number of helicopters to rescue flood-affected people in the state.

The bench had also asked the Centre and National Disaster Management Authority to provide all required resources to the state government and to file action taken reports.

PTI