Ranchi: Fifteen migrant workers from Jharkhand – nine from Bathet village in Lohardaga district and six workers from Ramgarh’s Gola block -- are missing since the glacier break and subsequent flood in Chamoli district in Uttrakhand on Sunday, government officials in Jharkhand said on Monday. The state has also set up a control room and a helpline number for stranded citizens of Jharkhand.
Lohardaga deputy commissioner Dilip Kumar Toppo said the nine missing labourers -- identified as Jyotish Bakhla, Majnu Bakhla, Ubarnush Bakhla, Sunil Bakhla, Nemhans Bakhla, Ravindra Oraon, Deepak Kujur, Vikky Bhagat, and Prem Oraon -- were engaged in work at NTPC’s 520-MW Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project on the Dhauliganga river in the Himalayan state. Notably, more than 170 are said to be missing and about a dozen deaths have been reported in the incident.
“Their family members have given us an application to help find them and we have alerted the state government and are trying to establish contact with authorities in Chamoli. The DM’s phone is out of range because of the ongoing rescue works. They last spoke to these nine workers at 9.30am on Sunday and they have not been able to contact them again after the incident. We have contacted NTPC and they too are trying to ascertain their whereabouts,” he said.
In Ramgarh, DC Sandeep Singh said, “Six workers from Gola block are missing and no further confirmatory message has reached us. They were employed there through a private agency and we are contacting them to trace the missing persons."
State disaster management department secretary Amitabh Kaushal confirmed that he had receiving information about the nine and they have activated official channels to trace them.
Meanwhile, chief minister Hemant Soren said a control room has been set up at the state labour department and people should not panic. “Those stranded in Chamoli may contact on these numbers for relief and rescue,” he said in a social media post. The numbers include 0651-2490055, 2490083, 2490037, 2490058, 2490052, and 2490125 for voice calls and 97401135291, 9431336427, 9431336398, 9431336472, and 9431336432 for WhatsApp messages.