Uttarakhand Flash Floods: 134 Missing People To Be Declared Dead

Chamoli: The Uttarakhand government has initiated the process of declaring the people missing in Chamoli glacier disaster as “presumed dead”. On Tuesday, the death toll in Uttarakhand floods rose to 70 after two more bodies were recovered from the debris, the state government said. 29 human organs have also been recovered so far. Meanwhile, as many as 134 persons are still missing, even after continuous rescue efforts since the glacier burst occurred on February 7.

The state government invoked the Birth and Death Registration Act, 1969 after a notification was issued by Uttarakhand Health Secretary Amit Negi on Sunday to declare those missing as dead.

The notification said, “In normal circumstances, the birth and death certificates are issued to a person at the place where he is born or died. But in exceptional circumstances, like the Chamoli disaster, if a missing person is possibly dead beyond all possibilities of being alive but his body is yet to be found, in that case the authorities could declare him dead by issuing the death certificate to his family members after a required inquiry.”

The family members of the missing people will be required to submit an affidavit and other details to a designated government officer in the process. The officer will then issue death certificates after conducting a proper inquiry. “This will help in settling compensation for the families of those missing,” the notification said.

The people missing in Uttarakhand flash floods have been divided in three categories in the notification. The first includes residents of the area near the glacier burst site who went missing. The second category consists of missing people from other districts who were present at the Uttarakhand disaster site. The third category comprises of people in the Chamoli disaster who were tourists or from other states.

“According to the information received from the disaster control room yesterday, one dead body was recovered from Srinagar Chauras and one from Kirti Nagar. Of the 206 missing persons, 70 bodies and 29 human organs have been recovered so far,” said the Uttarakhand government on Tuesday.