Fresh spell of rains on Sunday halted helicopter operations to ferry rations to re-mote districts of Uttarakh-and reeling under a shortage of foodgrains even as wet weather stalled the cremation of bodies in Kedarnath.
The Badrinath highway was closed for three hours due to incessant rainfall leaving 500 vehicles, inclu-ding many carrying relief, stranded. The highway was reopened for traffic later. “Helicopter operations to drop relief material have been stopped due to rains. Cremation of bodies in Kedar couldn’t be taken up due to rains,” said IGP Ram Meena. As the netwo-rk of roads is still damaged, making it impossible to transport trucks carrying relief material to affected villa-ges, the state government is thinking of deploying “all-weather” helicop-ters to ensure food supplies to villages facing foodgrain shortage. Wet weather and lack of heavy equipment is also preventing the removal of debris.