Union Water Resources Minister Harish Rawat on Friday played safe on reports that Uttarakhand has had no disaster management plan worth its name despite the region being highly disaster prone due to fragile mountains, tectonic activity and climatic events, saying the priority at the moment is to ensure that the people stranded are rescued and rehabilitated.
Rawat said that he would not like to comment on these matters now.
" I would just like to say that rescue operations are being conducted there with full power. The biggest question before us is to rescue and save the lives of all those stranded there," he said.
The Congress MP from Haridwar said Uttarakhand is working unitedly in the rescue operations.
"It is the nature's rage and everybody understands this. So, the Centre and the state government should at this point of time work unitedly to ensure that those affected are rescued and rehabilitated," he added.
A report released by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) as recently as on April 23, 2013 says that the State Disaster Management Authority that was formed in October 2007 has never met till date.
"Nor has it made any 'rules, regulations, policies or guidelines', a preliminary step for the authority to have any functional meaning. The state authorities were virtually non-functional," the report says.
"The state disaster management plan was under preparation and actionable programmes were not prepared for various disasters," the report adds.
The CAG report says that no plan was prepared for any early warnings, and the communication system was inadequate.
The CAG report also draws attention to glaring irregularities in the state disaster response fund.
The CAG said that although the Geological Survey of India had identified 101 villages as 'vulnerable' in June 2008, the Uttarakhand Government did not take any measures for their rehabilitation till date.
Over 34,000 pilgrims and tourists have so far been evacuated from different parts of the flood-affected areas mostly from Rudraprayag, Tehri, Uttarkashi and Pithoragarh districts in Uttarakhand.
Army, ITBP and National Disaster Response Force have launched one of the biggest human rescue operations.
Nearly 14,000 people are believed to be missing and another 60,000 are stranded.
Over 150 people are reported to be dead so far. The Uttarakhand State Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre has in its report to the Union Home Ministry said that casualties in the affected areas may run into thousands with about 90 'dharamashalas' (rest houses for pilgrims) swept away in the flash floods.
