Rs 7 lakh each to kin of 14 Uttarakhand victims

Chennai: Chief minister J. Jayal­ali­thaa on Wednesday handed out a solatium of Rs 7 lakh to family members of each of the 14 persons from the st­a­te who had gone missing du­­r­ing  flash floods in Utt­a­ra­­khand during June 2013, a release said.

The flash floods that had ravaged the northeastern part of the country including several top pilgrim des­ti­­nations at Badrinath and Kedarnath left 657 pilgrims from Tamil Nadu stranded.

The state government im­mediately dispatched a distress management team headed by the special rep­re­­sentative for Tamil Nadu government from New Del­hi to coordinate the rescue and relief operations in the affected regions.

Barring the 14 missing persons, all other pilgrims and tourists from the state were rescued and brought ba­ck to Chennai at the ex­pense of the state government and were later sent to their hometowns. The state government had also off­ered an assistance of Rs 5 cr­ore to Uttarkhand for the rescue and relief operatio­ns taken up on a war-footing.

Also, the state had an­no­unced a solatium of Rs 3.50 lakh from the chief minister’s relief fund for each of the victims’  families. The central government had also announced a solatium of Rs 2 lakh to each of the victims as part of the Prime Ministers Relief Fund while the Uttar­ak­ha­nd government had ann­ounced an additional Rs 1.5 lakhs

Combining all the relief amounts, the chief minister handed out cheques for Rs 7 lakh to the kin of the victims. The total relief am­­ount sums up to Rs 98 la­kh, the release added.