The Uttar Pradesh state has the largest number of missing people in the Uttarakhand floods at 2,048 followed by Madhya Pradesh at 1,000. Rajasthan has 650 missing from the state followed by Gujarat which has 126. The number of local from Uttarkhand reported missing are 924.
Officials in the Uttarkhand state government claim the list of missing would have been finalised by July 8 but for the discrepancies in the list of missing people sent by the UP state government. The final list is now expected to be released on July 15.
The first list of missing people from UP, sent by the UP chief secretary showed the number of missing at 726. When the Uttarakhand state government shot off a letter insisting the number of missing from their state was much higher, the UP government revised the figure to 1,500. A second letter had them revise the figure once again to 2,048.
The entire exercise of tracking the missing who would be “presumed dead” and are entitled to an ex-gratia compensation of `5 lakhs is being overseen by the Uttarakhand state government, along with NDMA member V.K. Duggal, who is the Centre’s nodal officer for coordinating rescue and relief operations in the state.
Mr Duggal pointed out, “A massive exercise has been undertaken to verify the missing which included verification of locals by the village patwari or panchayat, tracking the missing person over the net through social media networks and a confirmation call to all mobiles active in the affected areas between June 14-19. FIRs have been lodged of all those found missing.”