CS holds meeting with DCs to take stock of the cloudburst regions

Chief Secretary Prabodh Saxena in a virtual meeting with all the deputy commissioners here today said that around 300 people who were stranded around Shreekhand were safe and as many as 25 tourists at Malana were also safe and were being looked after well by the local people.

He said that immediate relief has been provided to the disaster-affected. Adequate men and machinery had been deployed in the affected regions to carry out relief and rescue operations. The teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams along with the Home Guards and Police Jawans were working 24X7 to trace those who were still missing. He said efforts were being made to restore National highway-21 for the commuters at the earliest.

He also took stock of the situation in the cloudburst regions of district Mandi, Kullu and Shimla and stated that taking into consideration the Met warnings of heavy rains, the district administration should remain on high alert. The Deputy Commissioners should ensure adequate ration, blankets, tarpaulin, stoves, etc to the families who had completely lost their belongings and homes in the recent floods triggered by the cloudbursts.

The Chief Secretary said that six people have lost their lives and 47 were missing and the relief and rescue operations were in full swing to retrieve those who were still missing from Thursday night. The control rooms in all the districts and the State Emergency Operation Centre have been set up to cope with any emergent situation arising out of natural disasters like flash floods, cloudbursts, landslides etc.

He directed to ensure immediate distribution of relief of Rs. 50000 to the disaster affected and Rs 5000 as cost for hiring rented accommodation as directed by the Chief Minister, Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.