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rescue
mission |
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Copter pilots couldn’t send distress signal
Tourism Minister okays Rs 100 crore for reconstruction
Mi-26 makes maiden landing at Gauchar
Anti-dam protests gain momentum in N-E
Ambubachi
festival at Kamakhya Temple
63 bonded labourers rescued
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rescue
mission Shaurya Karanbir Gurung/TNS
Chinyali (Uttarakhand), June 26 Deepa Rothila (26) recounted the horror as she waited with her family at Chinyali to board a helicopter for Harsil. “We were helpless. All we could do was flash our torches at them (people who were swept away) and watch them being swallowed by the gushing water. None of us dared to go into the water and save them,” she said. Deepa was among more than 600 people evacuated from Bhatwari and an Army camp in Harsil today. The Indian Air Force and civilian helicopters conducted 36 sorties to Harsil. Now only 350 out of 5,000 pilgrims remain at the Army camp. “As evacuees came out of the helicopter at Chinyali, I asked them only one question: Are you hungry? ‘We just want to go home’ was their reply,” said a senior police officer engaged in rescue operations. As people arrived at Chinyali, they ravenously ate their meals at a nearby “langar” (community kitchen) and rushed to a horde of buses waiting to ferry them to Dehradun and Rishikesh. The local administration claims the bus journeys are free of cost. At the “langar”, four foreigners stood out amongst the familiar Indian faces. One of them, Russian national Om Priya (34), recalled the seven-hour trek from Bhatwari to Uttarakashi. “There were many old people, some of whom could barely walk. Women wept as they struggled to stand up. We all wanted to reach our destination. There was no phone connectivity,” she said. Priya was staying at an ashram in Bhatwari when the flashfloods hit Uttarakhand. “I was inside the ashram when the floods struck. The building would shake every five minutes. Fearing for my life, I rushed out only to see three adjacent buildings collapse in the raging water,” she said, as she awaited the arrival of her friends. Her companion, Tapovan (31), a Hungarian national, spent two months in the Bhatwari ashram. He was in Tapovan, located near Gomukh, when the cloud burst happened. “There was knee-deep snow everywhere. I was alone. I stayed with a baba for a few days in Tapovan. He gave me food and water. I started my trek over the mountains from Gomukh to Gangotri. There were landslides everywhere. I reached Harsil and was safely brought to Chinyali,” he said.
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Copter pilots couldn’t send distress signal
Gauchar/Guptkashi, June 26 Prima facie, the pilots were caught in dense floating clouds at an altitude of around 2,900 metres (around 10,000 feet) and had no time to react, sources have told The Tribune. The helicopter hit a mountain side in a dense forest near Gumbar, a hamlet around 5 km north of Gaurikund on the Gaurikund-Kedarnath stretch. Sources in the IAF say the V5 variant of Mi-17 is fitted with a device that automatically emits a signal in case of a crash. “In yesterday’s crash, we did not receive any signal from the pilots,” said Air Vice-Marshal SRK Nair, Assistant Chief of IAF operations. The IAF will now hinge its court of inquiry on the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), which has been recovered. The wreckage has been located and has been secured by Special Forces of the Indian Army and ‘Garuds’ of the Indian Air Force. Seventeen bodies have so far been located in the jungles. Four of these were retrieved during a brief window of flying between 3 and 5 pm. The remaining bodies will be picked up tomorrow, officials said. Most bodies are charred and forensic support, including DNA sampling, would be required to identify them, official sources said. The helicopter was on its way back to its base after landing at Kedarnath. Once it left Kedarnath, the authorities failed to get any distress signal. The local police was called up to confirm that the helicopter had left Kedarnath. Those dead are: Wing Commander Darryl Castelino, Flight Lt K Praveen, Flt Lt Tapan Kapoor, Junior Warrant Officer AK Singh and Sergeant Sudhakar Yadav, all of the IAF; Inspector Bhim Singh, Sub-Inspector Satish Kumar, constables Nitya Nand Gupta, K Vinaygan, Bassavaraj Yaragati, Santosh Paswan, Sanjiva Kumar, Pawar Shashi Kant Ramesh and Ahir Rao Ganesh of the NDRF; and Sub-Inspector Jayndra Prasad, Constables Bibhuti Roy, Sarvesh Kumar, Ajay Lal, Joman PG and Nand Ram of the
ITBP.
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Don’t politicise U’khand crisis, Rajnath tells cadres
New Delhi, June 26 "The BJP appeals to party karyakartas not to politicise the Uttarakhand tragedy. Even if you are instigated by others, stay calm and composed," Rajnath said on Twitter. The remarks come against the backdrop of claims that Modi helped evacuate 15,000 Gujaratis in Uttarakhand in two days, which the Congress leaders have been referring to as his "Rambo act". The attack by Congress leaders led to counter-attacks by supporters of Modi, who questioned Rahul's presence in Uttrakhand despite Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde's advice to VIPs to stay away. "The BJP has also directed all state units not to flag off relief material as it hurts human sensibilities," he tweeted, quite obviously in response to Congress president Sonia Gandhi's "flagging off" relief material from the AICC headquarters on Monday.
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Tourism Minister okays Rs 100 crore for reconstruction
New Delhi, June 26 Uttarakhand has recently witnessed an unprecedented natural calamity that has caused colossal damage to both life and infrastructure in the state. The state government has been advised to assess the destroyed and damaged tourist amenities and conveniences and come back with the requirement of funds for rebuilding the infrastructure, an official statement said, adding that on examination of the demand, the ministry would sanction funds. The funds sanctioned in the relief package will be utilised for restoration and reconstruction of tourist infrastructure across the state with a special focus on tourist facilities along the yatra route.
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Mi-26 makes maiden landing at Gauchar
Chandigarh, June 26 With road links washed away and Gauchar being unsuited for operations by fixed-wing aircraft (despite it being an advanced landing ground), deployment of the Mi-26 was the only option left with the IAF to ensure availability of aviation fuel in inaccessible areas. The 126 Helicopter flight at Chandigarh, also called the Featherweights, was tasked with airlifting two 9,000-litre fuel bowsers to Gauchar and Dharasu along with some Army and NDRF personnel and evacuate stranded pilgrims. After having undertaken four sorties during the ongoing Operation Rahat, the unit is now looking ahead at airlifting heavy machinery and equipment for rebuilding infrastructure. Flying into the flood-ravaged areas was not without risks and challenges. Not only was the crew operating in uncharted territory in bad weather with no prior experience of the terrain, there were several operational parameters to be constantly reviewed and "spur-of-the-moment" decisions to be taken. "While flying, we had to re-work our flight plan and change altitude at times to cater to visibility, terrain and air traffic in the vicinity," Gp Capt GS Tung, the unit's commanding officer said. "The valleys in Uttarakhand are very narrow and there were about 55 other helicopters operating in that area and we had to maintain constant radio contact with them," he added. With him were his co-pilot Wg Cdr AS Bajwa, navigator Wg Cdr A Kukreti and two JCOs. The weather was also a major factor with visibility being just 2 km and clouds drifting across the flight path. Flying in the mountains without visual contact with the terrain is not possible. High-tension cables across valleys and increased bird activity during the monsoon were added threats. "Safety of the aircraft and those onboard is paramount," Wg Cdr Tung said.
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Anti-dam protests gain momentum in N-E
Guwahati, June 26 Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) general secretary and RTI activist Akhil Gogoi, who is spearheading the anti-dam movement along with over 20 other mass organisations, has resorted renewed agitation against mega dams in Arunachal Pradesh. The KMSS and other anti-dam organisations maintain that construction of dams on Brahmaputra and its tributaries in the upper reaches would spell doom for the people and environment of Assam. “Brahmaputra is the largest carrier of silt among all rivers in the world and fourth largest in terms of volume of water it carries. “The river determines the livelihood and ecology of Assam valley. Construction of mega dams on it will lead to a catastrophe,” Gogoi said. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi wants an indepth downstream impact study pertaining to these mega dams coming up in Arunachal
Pradesh.
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Liyaqat’s arrest: NIA to get CD analysed from ECIL
New Delhi, June 26 Sources in the NIA said the CD was seized by the Delhi Police during searches carried out in a guest house in the old Delhi area from where it has seized arms, ammunitions and other material, claiming that Shah's cronies had brought them. The police has seized computer hard drives and CDs of the cameras installed in the area. When the NIA took over the case, it sent them for a forensic analysis at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory which said that condition of the disks was so bad that it was difficult to retrieve any data from them. Following this, the NIA got permission of the special court to analyse the CD containing footage from the CCTV installed at the Jama Masjid police station from Electronics Corporation of India Ltd which had set the up the monitoring system there, sources said. The sources said the analysis of the data is important to substantiate events that took place during and after the arrest of Shah from the Indo-Nepal border, as claimed by the Delhi Police. While the Delhi Police had claimed that with Liyaqat's arrest they had foiled a 'fidayeen' (suicide) attack in the national capital ahead of Holi, the J&K Police insisted that he was one of those who had exfiltrated in 1990s and returned to India for surrendering under the state's rehabilitation policy. The special cell of the Delhi Police had earlier said that Liyaqat, a J&K resident, was apprehended from the Indo-Nepal border area and had told his interrogators that he is a trained militant of banned terror group Hizbul Mujahideen and was settled in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). — PTI
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Ambubachi
festival at Kamakhya Temple Bijay Sankar Bora/TNS
Guwahati, June 26 A large number of devotees and tourists from within and outside the country came here to pay obeisance to Ma Kamakhya, the presiding deity. “Over six lakh devotees came for the annual Ambubachi festival this year. To estimate the number of visitors during Ambubachi, we kept a round-the-clock watch along all the four routes to Nilachal Hills where the Kamakhya Temple is located,” said NK Sharma, a senior official of the temple management committee. He, however, rued the fact that the district administration this year failed to provide uninterrupted supply of drinking water and electricity for the festival. Meanwhile, a large section of the devotees chose to ignore these shortcomings and made the most out of the revelry that is characteristic of Ambubachi festivity. The temple official said that people have come not only from within the country, but also from countries like Russia, Italy, the US, Australia and New Zealand.
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63 bonded labourers rescued
Dindigul, June 26 A police team led by DSP Kuppuraj and tahsildar Rasikala raided the brick kiln and rescued the bonded labourers. — PTI
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Chinyali (Uttarakhand), June 26
Chandigarh, June 26
