Nearly 70 persons from Uttar Pradesh are reported missing following the tragedy that took place in Uttarakhand on Sunday.
The maximum number of people who are reported missing hailed from Lakhimpur district of UP. Most of these people were labourers who had gone to the neighbouring region for work in Taponvan project in the farming off-season.
According to an IANS report, 26 persons from Ichchanagar village had left for Tapovan and out of them, 18 had gone missing since the glacier burst. On the other hand, Bharampur said 11 have neither returned home and nor have they contacted their families, while in Bholapur five persons are feared missing.
District Magistrate Shailendra Singh in a statement said that while the number of overall people missing is not confirmed, a list of all workers from Lakhimpur Kheri is being compiled.
“We have deployed lekhpals to collate the information from villages and share it with the tehsildar and subdivisional magistrate. We are then verifying the data by getting in touch with family members. As of now, we suspect 35 people from just the Nighasan tehsil have gone missing,” he said
He added, “So far, we know 58 people from Nighasan were working at the hydel project site.The number may increase because we are yet to receive data from a few villages,” Nighasan sub divisional magistrate Om Prakash Gupta said adding that no death has been confirmed so far.
The report further said that even as the bodies of the deceased were recovered from the delbis, they couldn’t be recognized as the bodies have totally been crushed.
According to the office of the relief commissioner, three persons from Saharanpur, four from Meerut, five from Gorakhpur, two from Shamli and one each from Moradabad, Bijnor, and Chandauli are also out of contact with their family members.
To review the situation, UP CM Yogi Adityanath set up a high level meeting on Monday night.
The state government has also released a toll-free number 1070 and a WhatsApp number 9454441036 on which the family members of those who are missing, can contact for help.
The Chief Minister is also setting up control room in Haridwar and four officers have been designated to go to Joshimath and help people from Uttar Pradesh who are stranded there. He has also announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each for the kin of the deceased.