The rescue and relief of stranded pilgrims from Andhra Pradesh wrapped up on Monday with the departure of 70 pilgrims from Dehradun to Hyderabad by a special flight arranged by the state government.
According to officials, in all 2,500 stranded pilgrims from the state were rescued during the last fortnight. Though the Uttarakhand government had informed that 25 people from the state had perished in the flash floods and land slides, disaster management officials from the state maintained that only 13 had died. However, there is no official figure to ascertain as to how many were still missing.
The officials were deputed to the flood ravaged state of Uttarakhand after the disaster struck the Himalayan state on June 17. The state government had deputed several senior officials including disaster management commissioner T Radha for coordinating the rescue and relief operations of stranded pilgrims from the state at different places in Uttarakhand. Wrapping up the task, the officials are returning to the state and would submit a detailed report to the state government.