Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday conducted an aerial survey of rain-battered Uttarakhand, along with chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. Shah arrived in Uttarakhand on Wednesday night to hold review meetings and take stock of the rain-affected areas in the state. Uttarakhand received heavy rains over the past three days, leading to scenes of chaos and disaster across the state.
Shah undertook an aerial survey of the affected areas in a helicopter from the GTC helipad in Dehradun. Apart from Dhami, Uttarakhand governor Lt Gen (retd) Gurmit Singh and Union minister of state for defence Ajay Bhatt also accompanied Shah during the aerial survey.
After the survery, the home minister held a high-level review meeting with officials of the State and the Centre. “Due to timely rainfall alert, the extent of damage could be controlled,” news agency ANI quoted Shah as saying after the meeting.
Three days of incessant rains in the state have caused damages worth Rs 7000 crore , Mr.Dhami who has been touring the affected areas since Tuesday told reporters at the Pantnagar Airport .
Restoring the network of damaged roads and bridges at the earliest and evacuating people to safety is the priority at the moment , he said. Meanwhile , the death toll in rain-related incidents in the state has risen to 54 while 19 people are injured and five still missing , the state Emergency Operation Centre said in its latest report .
