Rishikesh (Uttrakhand)/Chandigarh, June 24, 2013: The Chopper of Punjab Government today safely evacuated more than 80 pilgrims from Badrinath, who were stranded at Badrinath for last few days.
According to A. Venuprasad, Secretary Housing, the rescue operations were going on war footing by the Punjab Government and the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister was constantly monitoring the ongoing rescue operations after massive natural disaster in Uttarakhand.
Prasad said that after evacuating all the pilgrims stranded at Sri Hemkunt Sahib the chopper of Punjab Government today started to rescue the pilgrims from Badrinath and it evacuated more than 80 pilgrims, who were brought to the various relief camps at Joshimatth. He said that due to unfair weather conditions and heavy rains the rescue operations hampered due a breach on Srinagar-Joshimatth National Highway. He said that teams of Border Roads Organisation were working day and night to bridge the breach, which would be completed before early morning.
Giving details about Pilgrims evacuated from Sri Hemkunt Sahib and Badrinath, who were at Gurdwara Nandramu, Mr. Prasad said that the rescue operations would restart from Tuesday morning after 6am and more than 2000 pilgrims at Nandramu would be brought to Rishikesh from where they would further leave for their respective destinations in Punjab through the transport arrangements made by Punjab Government.
Meanwhile, the teams of rescue operations of Punjab brought a two group of 15 people to the relief camp late evening at Rishikesh out of which 8 were from Ludhiana including Gagandeep Singh, Jaskaran Singh, Gurjot Singh, Harkirat Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Jaspal Singh and Neetu Singh while the rest ones from Nakodar including Dilawar Singh, Udham Singh, Jagir Singh, Amrik Singh, Manminder Kaur, Devinder Singh and Gurjant Singh. They have been sent to their native places in the buses of Punjab Roadways.