MoS Home Ajay Mishra visits Sikkim, assures of all central help

The central government is closely monitoring the situation in Sikkim, where a cloudburst and floods led to severe destruction and deaths, and providing all the necessary support and assistance to the state, Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra said on Saturday.

Mishra, who is currently visiting the areas hit by Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF), cloud burst and flash floods, also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah are in constant touch with Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang with regard to the extent of damages and rescue and relief work.

The government of India under Prime Minister Modi is standing in solidarity with the people of Sikkim and leaving no stone unturned to restore normalcy in the state, according to an official release.

Within a day of the incident, Home Minister Shah has deputed Mishra to visit Sikkim.

Mishra reached Gangtok on Friday night, and chaired a meeting with the Chief Secretary and head of departments concerned of the state government, and senior officers of the Army, ITBP, BRO, NHIDCL and NHPC at Gangtok, this morning.

He informed that the government of India has constituted an Inter-Ministerial Central Team comprising senior officers of five central ministries -- Agriculture, Road Transport & Highways, Jal Shakti, Energy and Finance.

The team will visit the state from Sunday, October 8, to take stock of the ground situation, assess the damages and provide assistance wherever necessary.

The minister said the central government has granted an advance sanction of the allocated SDRF for 2023-24 to enable the state to carry out immediate rescue, relief and restoration.

He said the central government under Prime Minister Modi urged the state government officials to prepare a short term and long-term plan to effectively accomplish the task of re-building the damaged and lost infrastructure in the shortest possible time.

Earlier, Chief Secretary, Sikkim briefed the Union Minister of State about the sequence of events since the early hours of October 4 that led to the disaster, and the extent of damages, the release said.

He apprised the Union MoS about the extensive damages to roads and other vital infrastructures like telecommunication, water and electricity.

He informed about the casualties and the status of the relief camps. Further, he delivered a comprehensive summary of the steps being taken by the state government in active coordination with the army, NDRF, BRO, ITBP and all other agencies.

In the afternoon, Mishra visited the Army camp at Burdong where maximum casualties have happened.

He is slated to meet the chief minister on October 8 and will visit affected areas and relief camps.

The ITBP has carried out rescue operation right from October 4 night itself, and evacuated more than 175 people, and they are running relief centres within their different camps, the release said.

A total of 40 people were stranded into a totally cut off area, they were rescued through highly dangerous terrain, and evacuated through rough rivers through cables and ropes.

Six people, who were trapped on the other side of dam tunnel, were rescued. Sixty-eight people were stranded at Zanak, which is at 16,000 feet height, and everyone was rescued and brought to ITBP camp at Goma.

Four stranded families were brought to Lachung BOP of ITBP and they are camping there. Four teams of NDRF are deployed and they have also rescued 178 people.

Tourist are facilitated to contact their relatives over satellite phones from Lachung and two different locations of ITBP and Indian Army.

Indian Air Force helicopters are on standby to launch air rescue, subject to weather conditions.

Army personnel along with necessary search and rescue equipment are assisting state administration in restoration work, the release said.