magisterial-probe-ordered-in-dharamsala-flashflood-that-killed-5

A magisterial inquiry has been ordered into the tragic flashflood incident in Dharamsala, where five bodies of labourers have been recovered so far and one labourer was rescued safely from a nearby forest area, District Magistrate of Kangra Hemraj Bairwa said.

 

The flashfloods struck on Wednesday evening near the under-construction Manuni Hydroelectric Power Project, a sister venture of the Indira Priyadarshini Hydroelectric Power Project, being built on the Manuni rivulet. The labourers were working there when the flashfloods struck them. Nearly, 170 labourers who were stranded upstream when the floods hit were safely evacuated during the night between Wednesday and Thursday.

 

Bairwa confirmed that the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) will investigate all aspects and circumstances surrounding the incident, which is feared to have claimed at least eight lives, based on missing person reports provided by officials of the power project company.

 

“We have recovered five bodies and all five have been identified, while the rest of the three bodies are yet to be recovered from the rivulet”, he said.

 

Superintendent of Police (Kangra) Shalini Agnihotri on Thursday confirmed the identities of the five labourers whose bodies were recovered from the Manuni rivulet after Wednesday’s flashfloods. The deceased have been identified as Chain Singh (20) from Doda district (J&K), Aditya Thakur (24) from Chamba (HP), Pardeep Verma (35) Deoria (UP), Chandan Kumar (27) from Deoria (UP) and Sanjay from Kangra (HP).

 

SP Agnihotri also confirmed that one labourer, Lovely Kumar (20) from Poona village in Chamba district was safely rescued from a nearby forest on Thursday. He had fled into the forest to escape the sudden surge of water and survived the ordeal.

 

The NDRF and the SDRF teams are jointly conducting the rescue operation to trace the three missing labourers even as intermittent rains continue to pour in the region.

 

“It is a challenging task for the rescue teams because of rain amid the strong current of water and difficult geographical conditions”, said Abhishek Dular, IG of the North Range, Himachal Pradesh, who went to the incident spot today to supervise the rescue operation.