Water minister: Priority is relief op, not CAG's views
June 21, 2013  12:47
Union Water Resources Minister Harish Rawat on Friday played safe on reports that Uttarakhand has had no disaster management plan worth its name despite the region being highly disaster prone due to fragile mountains, tectonic activity and climatic events, saying the priority at the moment is to ensure that the people stranded are rescued and rehabilitated.

Rawat said that he would not like to comment on these matters now.

"I would just like to say that rescue operations are being conducted there with full power. The biggest question before us is to rescue and save the lives of all those stranded there," he said.

The Congress MP from Haridwar said Uttarakhand is working unitedly in the rescue operations.

"It is the nature's rage and everybody understands this. So, the Centre and the state government should at this point of time work unitedly to ensure that those affected are rescued and rehabilitated," he added.

A report released by the Comptroller and Auditor General as recently as on April 23, 2013 says that the State Disaster Management Authority that was formed in October 2007 has never met till date.

"Nor has it made any 'rules, regulations, policies or guidelines', a preliminary step for the authority to have any functional meaning. The state authorities were virtually non-functional," the report says.
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