Chamoli Disaster: No Information of Whereabouts, Anxiety Grips Kin of 70 Missing Workers

Lucknow: Kavita burst into tears while talking about her brother Vimlesh who, along with 34 others from Lakhimpur Kheri district in Uttar Pradesh, was at work in the Tapovan Vishnugad Hydropower Plant and has been reported missing after the devastating flash flood in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Sunday.

“Its been three days and we don’t know of the whereabouts of my brother. My ailing parents are totally devastated. We don't know whether we should hope for better or be prepared for the worst. We are hanging onto a thin thread of hope,” said Kavita. She said that her brother Vimlesh had called her up a few days ago to tell her that he had deposited his salary into their account and asked her to go down to the bank.

Three days have passed since the tragedy struck and the family members of the missing persons have not been able to contact them. According to locals the bodies of three missing labourers from Lakhimpur Kheri have been found.

Susheela, the wife of Ved Prakash, a native of Motipur Kala village in Shravasti district has been unable to contact her husband, the lone breadwinner in the family, as his mobile phone is switched off. She last spoke to him at around 11 am on Sunday before he left for the site.

“I need to know if my husband is alive or dead. Since the news flashed on television we have been desperately trying to contact him, but our calls are not going through,” Susheela, a mother to three children said, requesting the government to help the family at a time when no officials from the district or her husband’s company had visited her.

Aside from Ved Prakash and Vimlesh, seven other labourers from Shravasti are also untraceable. They had been working at the Rishi Ganga Power Project in Chamoli and were all from Motipur Kala. The villagers said that the COVID-19 outbreak had hit them hard, resulting in hundreds of people – especially young men – migrating to Uttarakhand in the search of a better livelihood. “It was an off-season for farming and most of the people in the region were jobless since the outbreak. They have been recruited on a salary of Rs 18,000 per month which was a dream for anyone from the village," Kamakhya, one of the villagers in Lakhimpur Kheri, told NewsClick.

There are some who braved all the odds and managed to come out safely from Uttarkhand. One such survivor is Vimal from Majra Babupurwa, who survived the tragedy and called his family on Sunday. He had informed them that many of his friends from the district who were working in the tunnel were trapped inside. He said that a rescue operation was on but that there was no news about his missing friends.

“I was a daily-wager before the pandemic and hardly managed to earn Rs 6,000 per month. It was not enough for a family of five members so my friends and I decided to come to Uttarakhand as the salary was lucrative compared to what we earn in Uttar Pradesh. I won't compromise with the future of my loved ones from now on,” said Vimal, who was working inside one of the tunnels when the waters struck. He was still worried about whether his colleagues had been rescued.

Managing to run from room to room and then to a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) camp to escape the flash flood, surviving the Himalayan tragedy was nothing short of a miracle for Heeralal, who lived on only one meal for two days.

Calling the experience “horrifying”, Heeralal, in his thirties, said his family was still not aware about his whereabouts as of Tuesday evening.

“It was a pleasant morning and I was working with my brothers Rajesh and Raju and suddenly people started screaming ‘run, run!’ from the village on the peak but before we could save ourselves a flash flood smashed away the entire project,” Heeralal told NewsClick.

Kumar from Lakhimpur Kheri, Raj Kumar from Shravasti and Shaya Kumar from Meerut – all of whom were rescued – had similar tales to tell. They hoped that others who were trapped could be rescued.

The maximum number of people reported missing due to the tragedy are from Lakhimpur Kheri. Those who have gone missing include 34 labourers from Lakhimpur Kheri, Meerut (5), Shravasti (8), Amroha (5), Gorakhpur (4), Saharanpur (10), Deoria (2), Kushinagar (2) and Bijnor (2) in UP. Those who hailed from Lakhimpur Kheri were working in the severely-affected NTPC’s Tapovan-Vishnugad project. Tapovan power project site.

FAMILY MEMBERS LEFT FOR UTTARAKHAND

Unable to trace their kin, the family members of four people from Gorakhpur – who are missing in Chamoli – left for Uttarakhand on Tuesday afternoon. The family members of Ved Prakash, Dhanudhari, Nagendra Singh and Sheshnath Upadhyay, residents of Jagatbela area, met Gorakhpur’s district magistrate K. Vijayendra Pandian on Monday evening and informed him about their family members.

Shiv Kumar Singh, a native of Jagatbela, said all the four missing people were working at the NTPC site. The worried father said that as soon as he heard the news of his son going missing, he left his Gorakhpur home for Uttarakhand. “After six hours of travelling and covering almost 285 kms I was able to reach Lucknow. I have to cover twice this distance now. My heart is sinking with each passing minute but I am optimistic that I will be reunited with my son,” Singh told NewsClick while holding back his tears.

The state government has issued the toll-free number 1070 and a WhatsApp number (9454441036) on which family members of those missing can reach out for help.

The Chief Minister has also announced a compensation of Rs two lakh each for the kin of the deceased.