India News | U'khand CM Dhami Asks DMs to Remain in Alert Mode After 3 Die in Cloudburst

Dehradun, Jul 20 (PTI) A day after three members of a family were killed in a cloudburst in Uttarkashi district, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Tuesday asked all district magistrates in Uttarakhand to be on alert mode all the time to minimise the response time in case of a disaster.

He also said there should be no pendency in redressal of people's grievances.

Problems should be resolved by competent authorities at the district level itself instead of taking them to the state capital, Dhami said.

"Relief and rescue measures should be taken immediately in case of an incident. Response time should be minimised and all officials concerned should be on the alert all the time. Be it 12 in the night or 2 am in the morning," Dhami told reporters after a virtual meeting with DMs to assess the situation. "People must feel that the administration cares for them," he said.

There should be total coordination between different departments for effective disaster management, he said, asking officials to conduct mock drills from time to time to keep the personnel and the machinery ready to deal with a disaster.

Blocked roads should be opened and disrupted communication and water supply lines should be restored at the earliest, he said. There should be no delay due to negligence in the relocation of people from disaster-hit villages such as Raini village in Chamoli district where a flash flood occurred in February this year, he said.

A compensation of Rs 4 lakh was paid to the next of kin of those killed in the cloudburst in Mando village in Uttarkashi district. Apart from that, an ex gratia of Rs 3,800 was given to 49 families affected by the cloudburst, Uttarkashi District Magistrate Mayur Dikshit said.

Meanwhile, a search operation continues for a 25-year-old man who went missing after the cloudburst in Kankarari village adjacent to Mando.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)