Nearly 29 Uttar Pradesh labourers who were working at the Tapovan-Vishnugad hydropower project in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli when a glacier broke on February 7 produced a catastrophic flash flood have now been confirmed “dead.”
For the families, this will offer closure, and they will now be compensated under different programmes.
The next of kin to the deceased laborers will get Rs 29 lakh each — Rs 20 lakh from National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Rs 4 lakh from Uttarakhand Disaster Relief Fund, Rs 1 lakh under a beneficiary scheme of the Uttarakhand government, and Rs 2 lakh each from Uttar Pradesh government and the Centre.
Thirty-three laborers from the Lakhimpur Kheri district and one from the Shahjahanpur district were washed away by the flash flood.
Five bodies were later recovered. They were identified as Jalal Ali, 20, Vimlesh, 23, Avdhesh, 19, Suraj, 21, (all from Lakhimpur Kheri), and Sher Singh from Shahjahanpur. The remaining bodies could not be recovered.
On February 23, the Uttarakhand government had issued a notification authorizing nearly 140 people still missing, to be declared “presumed dead”.
After the missing 140 people were considered dead in March by the neighboring state government, the required information was provided to them by the Kheri administration.
Thereafter, a gazette was published in newspapers on April 23 to ‘seek objection’. With no objection received, the death certificates were issued by Uttarakhand authorities.
Among the 29 missing labourers, 13 were from Ichchanagar, eight from Bhairampur and one each from neighbouring villages.
Their families are yet to receive the death certificates.
When contacted, Nighasan Sub Divisional Magistrate, Om Prakash Gupta, said, “All the formalities are complete. The 29 missing laborers have been declared dead. No objections were raised after the gazette was published a month ago. The death certificate and the compensation will be provided by the Uttarakhand government and the NTPC.”
