New Delhi (NVI): The Uttarakhand government has initiated the process of declaring the people missing in Chamoli glacier disaster as ‘presumed dead’ and issued a notification to that effect on Monday.
Of the 206 people missing in the Chamoli disaster, search and rescue workers have recovered 70 bodies and 29 human organs from the debris so far, after the region was hit by one of the worst tragedies in recent years, according to the state government.
The notification stated, “In normal circumstances, the birth and death certificates are issued to a person at the place where he is born or died. But in exceptional circumstances, like the Chamoli disaster, if a missing person is possibly dead beyond all possibilities of being alive but his body is yet to be found, in that case the authorities could declare him dead by issuing the death certificate to his family members after a required inquiry.”
The family members of the missing people will be required to submit an affidavit and other details to a designated government officer in the process.
The officer will then issue death certificates after conducting a proper inquiry.
“This will help in settling compensation for the families of those missing,” the notification said.
For the purpose of issuing death certificate, the government has divided the missing people in three categories.
The first includes residents of the area near the glacier burst site who went missing. The second category consists of missing people from other districts who were present at the Uttarakhand disaster site. The third category comprises of people in the Chamoli disaster who were tourists or from other states.
The glacier break in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on February 7 triggered an avalanche and massive flooding. The disaster caused extensive damage to the Tapovan-Vishnugad and Rishi Ganga Hydel Projects.
-CHK
