Pilgrims boarded in a bus on way back to their respective homes.
Badrinath/Rishikesh/Chandigarh, June 27, 2013: With the arrival of 500 more pilgrims from Rishikesh to Punjab tonight, the total number of pilgrims so far evacuated from different parts of Uttarakhand would touch 8000; those have already been left for Punjab in the buses of Punjab Police, Punjab Roadways and other hired vehicles.
Meanwhile, the Punjab government today intensified its rescue operations to evacuate over 2500 pilgrims including over 350 Punjabis stranded at Badrinath by Friday evening as heavy rains lashing the route halted the operation for few hours. Concerned about the prediction of rains, the Punjab government today dispatched a Special Rescue and Relief operation team led by Dr. Adapa Karthik, to Badrinath that joined rescue operations in association with other rescue agencies. According to latest information provided by the team of Punjab at Badrinath, there were more than 2500 devotees from several states of the country still stranded out of which more than 350 were from Punjab.
Giving more details about the ongoing evacuation operations, Dr. Adapa Karthik said that they have joined the operations in the morning and met the stranded devotees at Badrinath. He said that about 350 pilgrims from Punjab were at Badrinath and sick pilgrims were being evacuated on priority. He said that, the weather permitting they were planning to complete the evacuation operation by Friday or Saturday evening. He said that heavy rains and bad weather in afternoon halted the rescue operations.
Expressing satisfaction over the evacuation process, Karthik said that the teams from Punjab had been safely rescued thousands of Pilgrims from Sri Hemkunt Sahib, Gobind Dham, Gobind Ghat, Nagrasu and other hilly areas. He said the remaining pilgrims, at Badrinath weather permitting, will be air lifted out to Joshi Matth by Friday afternoon. He said that all the necessary and requisite arrangements of transportation have been made at Joshi Matth for the devotees, where more than 200 rescuers of Punjab Police were working day and night for the safe landing of pilgrims at base camp of Punjab Government at Gurdwara Sri Hemkunt Sahib Management Trust, Rishikesh.
Kartik said that Jawans of Punjab Police had been attached with the other rescue agencies to rescue the people from other states too. He said that more than 20 buses of Punjab Government including Punjab Roadways, Punjab Police and PRTC were still parked at Rishikesh to ferry the pilgrims to their respective destinations in Punjab.
Meanwhile, Mandeep Singh, Secretary Forest, Punjab also informed that the pilgrims brought by Punjab Police Jawans from Joshi Matth has been dispatched to various districts of Punjab in the buses of Punjab Police and Punjab Roadways on Thursday Morning. He said that sufficient arrangements including refreshment, food, medical, and transportation and relief material have been made at Rishikesh for the facilitation of pilgrims being evacuated from Joshi Matth and Nagrasu.