Dehradun:
With fresh rains likely to lash Uttarakhand on Tuesday, rescue work on Monday gathered steam in the hill state where 12,000 people were evacuated today.
"Rains on Tuesday are our main worry...if we get three to four hours of window on Monday, we can do well," Air Marshal SB Deo, DG, Air Operations told reporters here.
So far, over 80,000 people have been evacuated to safer areas in the rain-ravaged state with some 10,000 people still stranded in various places, DG, Press Information Bureau Neelam Kapur said.
She, however, said the latest figures on the death toll were not available immediately and these could change in the coming days.
Quoting the Uttarakhand government, the Centre had yesterday said 557 people have died in the calamity. Two thousand people are still present in Harsil.
And, the priority today will be to pull people out of Harsil. "People in Harsil are under the charge of the Army and are being looked well," Kapur said.
The NDRF today deployed its 'Netra' UAV to trace survivors in various areas. NDRF DIG S S Guleria said the UAV will operate today as well to ensure all living are located and eventually evacuated.
State-run BSNL has operationalised helpline numbers 1503 and 09412024365 which are available free of cost from anywhere in the country.
These numbers can be called to get information on the last active location of the BSNL mobile phones of the missing persons.
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