PWD, police team sent to remove debris in Kedarnath

Dehradun, Jul 13: All efforts were launched today to bring life back on track in disaster-hit Uttarakhand with a 61-member team of PWD and police personnel dispatched to Kedarnath to remove tonnes of debris lying there.

Meanwhile, Chamoli district administration has written to the state's disaster management authorities asking them to assess the gravity of threat posed by the formation of a glacial lake at Satopanth above Badrinath to inhabitants in the area, Chamoli Additional District Magistrate Sanjay Kumar told.

The lake formed after melting of glaciers at Satopanth in Chamoli district, about 30 km from the Himalayan shrine, posed danger to the rain-ravaged areas of Badrinath, Joshimath and Karnaprayag, prompting the district administration to issue an alert.

However, Kumar said that the water in the lake is not rising at the moment and there is no immediate cause for alarm. Relief material is being sent to affected villages in the worst-hit districts of Chamoli, Rudraprayag and Uttarkashi by helicopters and mule tracks with recurrent blockade of major highways by the debris brought over by intermittent rains, officials in Dehradun said.

All the 84 villages of Chamoli from where shortage of food grains was reported have been covered by the relief operations, the ADM said. A 61-member team of PWD and police personnel with necessary equipment have been sent to Kedarnath to remove the debris, Inspector General of Police Ram Singh Meena said.

Efforts are also on to build temporary bridges or install trolleys over swollen rivers to make villages located along their banks accessible, so that relief operations could be expedited, Meena said.

PTI