Centre releases 2nd tranche of Rs 468 cr aid to Uttarakhand

New Delhi: The Centre has released the second tranche of financial assistance worth Rs 468.50 crore to the Uttarakhand government as part of the State Disaster Risk Management Fund (SDRMF), ET has learnt. On Monday, three more bodies were recovered, taking the number of confirmed deaths in the flash floods to 55.

Officials said Uttarakhand was allocated Rs 1,041 crore under SDRMF, of which Rs 468.50 crore was cleared till last week. This was also stated by Union home minister Amit Shah before Parliament while making a statement on the Uttarakhand rescue and relief efforts. “The Centre has released the first instalment of central share amounting to Rs 468.50 crore,” Shah told the Rajya Sabha on February 9. “While a central team will hold a detailed review on the damage caused due to the floods, the second instalment has been released taking the total grant to Rs 937 crore,” said an official familiar with the developments. Search and rescue operation is still underway at Tapowan, Raini and Lata village area. The teams continued boring and drilling operations inside the tunnel.

Search teams have, till now, recovered 22 body parts from different places so far. According to the Chamoli Police, the identities of 29 bodies and one body part have been established. DNA samples of the unidentified bodies have been stored for matching. The DNA samples of 55 family members of missing persons have also been collected. The Joshimath police station has registered reports on 179 missing persons.

After a survey of the artificial lake and selection of a helipad, the disaster relief team returned to Joshimath from Murenda Paig valley on Saturday. A slight leakage of water seen at the artificial lake is being closely monitored and more than 325 NTPC engineers have been deployed at the rescue site for coordination and managing the rescue operation, according to home ministry officials. On February 7, a glacier gave way in the Tapovan-Reni area of Chamoli district which led to massive flooding in Dhauliganga and Alaknanda rivers and damaged a functional Rishiganga small hydro project of 13.2 MW.