Parties collect funds for flood-affected

Political parties have geared up to collect funds and donations for the flood-affected in Uttarakhand. The Left, meanwhile, has demanded probe into damage caused to the hills by the drilling that takes place as part of hydropower projects.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday directed all party MPs and MLAs to donate one month’s worth of their salary for relief work in Uttarakhand. Gandhi also directed all party MPs to give Rs 10 lakh each from their MPLADS fund for relief work, said the party's communication department in-charge Ajay Maken.

The Congress has currently 203 members in the Lok Sabha and 72 in the Rajya Sabha.
“All Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chiefs are being asked to send relief materials from their states to Uttarakhand immediately,” added Maken.

The Congress has also set up a PCC control room at Dehradun to accelerate the relief work. AICC secretary Sanjay Kapoor and party wing Seva Dal’s chief Mahendra Joshi have been sent to Dehradun to monitor the rescue work.

Meanwhile, the BJP expressed its concern over the devastation in Uttarakhand, and party president Rajnath Singh asked workers to donate funds for relief.   After returning from the affected areas, Singh called for relief work on a large scale.

“He has appealed to BJP workers, people and especially traders and trade organisations to come forward at this moment of national calamity and cooperate in providing relief,” the BJP said in a statement.

Donations for relief work are being collected by the party in the “BJP Disaster Relief Fund”.
Party leader M Venkaiah Naidu donated Rs 50 lakh from his MPLADS fund for the victims and their families. He also demanded that this “unprecedented nature's fury” be declared a national calamity. Expressing shock at the unprecedented death and devastation, Left parties on Friday demanded a probe into the indiscriminate damage caused to the hills due to the construction of power projects in the state.