Rescuers battle odds to look for 500 missing,toll rises to 145

CLOUDBURST

Snehesh Alex Philip
Choglumsar (Leh), Aug 8 (PTI) Rescue workers in India
struggled through piles of mud and slush looking for over 500
people missing in the Friday's devastating cloudburst that
flattened villages and snapped power and communication links
even as the death toll in the tragedy Sunday mounted to 145.
The once picturesque landscape has turned into a
disaster zone, with tossed up vehicles lying scattered and
mounds of silt and slush burying houses made of mud called
'gomfa' and shops.
Walking on the layers of unstable mud in one of the
worst-hit Choglusmar village, you could find the high tension
wires hanging right next to you.
Rescuers waded through knee-deep mud to extricate
trapped people. Personnel of Indo-Tibetan Border Police
(ITBP), Army and General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF)
ploughed through the silt and boulders with earth movers,
cranes and other machines, tourists were seen giving a helping
hand.
The death toll has climbed to 145 while over 500 were
still to be accounted for after the cloudburst and flash
floods, official sources said.
Both the ITBP and the Army have set up various camps
to look after hundreds of injured. The ITBP had also set up
community kitchens along the roads which are feeding the
homeless.
The biggest roadblock that rescue workers are facing
is communication breakdown as the BSNL office was severely
damaged in the deluge.
"The major problem is due to the communication
breakdown. If communication is restored it will help in
co-ordination of rescue operations in a better way," Pashi
Tsetan, deputy director with the development wing of the local
administration, said.
The district hospital building had been inundated by
the swirling waters forcing the administration to move to an
under-construction building.
Hundreds of people with bandages crowd the building.
Doctors say many of the injured were swept away by the deluge
for considerable distances before being rescued.
The bodies of two French nationals identified as
Augariwelus and Hellot were retrieved from under the debris,
the sources said. MORE PTI SAP
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Meanwhile, Army Sunday said 33 soldiers were washed
away in flash floods in Shyok river of Ladakh region near
Siachen on Friday.
The Army has sought the help of Pakistani authorities
to trace the personnel who were on duty on the Line of Control
as they fear that they might have been swept away towards
Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the deluge.
A group of about 45 National Disaster Response Force
(NDRF) personnel have also joined the rescue efforts in Leh.
The NDRF team has brought with them high-tech equipment to
gear up rescue operations.
"The focus is on rescue operations. This is a disaster
of huge proportions. The effort of all agencies is to rescue
the maximum number of people," said ITBP DIG P K Dhasmana who
is leading hundreds of rescuers.
As many as 1,314 passengers, mostly Indian and foreign
tourists, were airlifted from Leh and brought to Delhi,
Aviation Ministry sources said.
JET airways and Air India operated four flights each
and Kingfisher three to carry medical and other relief
material, doctrors and para medics to help affected people in
Leh, they said.
Three IL-76 and four AN-32 aircraft carrying relief
material reached Leh this morning.
"We have recovered 145 bodies so far while the number
of missing is around 500," an official said, adding the toll
may go up.
ITBP is helping plug the breaches to make NH-1A
between Srinagar-Kargil and Kargil-Leh functional
Faced with an acute shortage of clean drinking water,
the ITBP has dispatched tankers containing drinking water to
the affected areas, Deepak Pandey spokesperson for the border
guarding force said.
The force has also established a medical camp in Saboo
village, which is located above Chuglumsar village, Pandey
said.
Bodies of eleven persons were Sunday flown in an
Indian Air Force plane to Udhampur in Jammu region from where
they were sent to Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Rajasthan,
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33 soldiers washed away in Ladakh floods, Pak help sought
New Delhi, Aug 8 (PTI) Thirty-three soldiers including
three Junior Commissioned Officers, deployed along the Line of
Control near Siachen glacier, are feared to have been washed
away to PoK in flash floods in Ladakh and help of Pakistan has
been sought to trace them.
A senior Indian Army officer said Sunday that the
jawans, who were manning a post near Turtok along the Line of
Control (LoC), still remained untraced after they faced the
fury of a swollen Shyok river on the same day when Leh was hit
by flash floods following a devastating cloudburst on Friday
last.
The Army has now sought the help of Pakistani
authorities to help rescue the 33 personnel of 15 Bihar
infantry regiment as it fears that they may have been swept
away towards Pakistan-occupied Kashmir(PoK) in the deluge, the
officer said.
Though the 33 soldiers, including three junior
commissioned officers, were well-trained to negotiate the
conditions, the Army has not been able to trace them even 48
hours after the incident, the officer said.
"The soldiers are feared to have been swept away
towards PoK and we have sought help from Pakistan to trace
them," the officer said. PTI NCB
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BANGLA-CREDIT
B'desh govt strongly defends USD 1 bln loan deal with India
Anisur Rahman
Dhaka, Aug 8 (PTI) The ruling Awami League-led
government in Bangladesh Sunday strongly defended the whopping
USD 1 billion loan deal with India, dismissing the opposition
BNP's charges as a "disgusting attempt to spread falsehood."
Foreign Minister Dipu Moni blasted BNP leader MK Anwar
MP for his "misleading statement" on the USD 1 billion loan
deal with India during the visit of Finance Minister Pranab
Mukherjee. The loan amount is the largest line of credit
received by Bangladesh from a foreign country.
"This is nothing but a disgusting attempt to spread
falsehood," she told a press briefing a day after the two
countries signed the deal on soft Indian credit for
communication and other infrastructures in Bangladesh with 1.
75 per cent interest, the rate BNP alleged seven times higher
than that from any multinational bank or donor agency.
She added: "such parochial attitude is not politics
the opposition made such remarks to make an issue of theirs
since they don't have any."
Moni particularly criticised Anwar, who made the
allegation on BNP's behalf ahead of Finance Minister Pranab
Mukherjee's Dhaka visit to witness the signing of the
agreement, saying the bureaucrat-turned-politician himself
knew well about the falsehood as he had served in Economic
Relations Department which dealt with such foreign deals.
The foreign minister's comments came a day after
Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith refuted the BNP
allegation over the interest rate saying "this is so utterly
false".
BNP called the USD 1 billion deal with India
contrary to the national interest as "the government is
getting the loan from the Indian bank with an interest rate
seven times higher than that from any multinational bank or
donor agency".
But Muhith said the interest could only be lower
than the 1.75 per cent in cases of concessional credits very
often offered by the donors or lending agencies while during
their past 1991-1996 regime BNP had borrowed loans of similar
type with as high as 5 per cent interest.
"Different development partners, including World
Bank, charge the same amount of commitment fees," he said.
The foreign minister Sunday supplemented Muhith
saying the own interest rate of Exim Bank, through which the
credit was channelled, was 4 per cent while Bangladesh got it
at 1.75 per cent interest rate as the Indian government was
subsidising the rest of the amount.
"This could be called as concessional loan," she
said. PTI AR
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BANGLA-CONNECTIVITY
India to get access to landlocked N-E states through B'desh
Dhaka, Aug 8 (PTI) India will get access to its
landlocked seven northeastern states through Bangladesh with
"unfettered movement of people and goods" as Dhaka seeks to
transform itself into a "regional hub" by boosting road and
railway connectivity in the country.
Underlining that the country had been isolated for too
long, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni Sunday said giving transit
facilities (to India) would bring economic benefit for
Bangladesh.
She said Bangladesh wants to transform the country
into a regional hub so that the entire region is
well-connected.
"When we are thinking about transforming Bangladesh as
a regional hub and when the entire region will be brought
under the connectivity, India will have access to its
northeastern states," she said, adding "unfettered movement of
people and goods will be taking place."
Relations between the South Asian neighbours were
chilly between 2001-2006 when the Islamist-allied BNP was in
power in Bangladesh and New Delhi regularly accused Dhaka of
harbouring anti-India insurgents and fostering militancy.
The bilateral ties, however, have been on the upswing
since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came to power after the
landmark general election in 2008.
In the largest-ever loan India has given to any
foreign country, New Delhi on Saturday signed an agreement
with Bangladesh to extend a USD 1 billion credit line to Dhaka
for developing 14 infrastructure projects, mostly in the
communications sector.
The loan agreement was signed between the Exim Bank of
India and the Economic Relations Department of Bangladesh in
the presence of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Amid protests by the main opposition Bangladesh
Nationalist Party (BNP) over the massive loan, Moni described
it as a "win-win situation". She said it has been taken to
fulfill Bangladesh’s interests.
However, she underlined that India will also get
benefits from the deal.
"If connectivity is in place, all will get the
benefit," she said, adding "it will be a win-win situation".
"One must get out of the negative thinking that India
will benefit if roads and ports are developed,” Moni was
quoted as saying by The Star online on Sunday.
The Foreign Minister said if rail communications are
improved, Bangladesh will get the benefit and in some areas
while India will also get benefits. PTI AKJ
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VESSEL-OPERATIONS
Oilspill on as cargo ship tilts further
Mumbai, Aug 8 (PTI) A cargo ship, which collided with
another vessel a few nautical miles off the western Indian
metropolis coast, continues to spill oil for the second
consecutive day as it further tilted, dropping more oil
containers into sea, as the Coast Guard carried out
anti-pollution operations.
A day after the collision involving Panamanian cargo
ships - MSC Chitra and MV Khalijia-III --, traffic at the
city's harbour remained suspended. The Coast Guard, in its bid
to contain the spill, pressed into service five ships and two
helicopters with anti-pollution dispersal spray systems.
"Traffic has been suspended as the containers are still
sighted floating into the channel thus making navigation
hazard," a Coast Guard official said.
Officials are yet to locate the leakage as some portion
of Chitra has submerged into the water.
Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Shipping has
initiated an investigation into the incident, Directorate
General of Shipping's Chief Nautical Advisor M M Savvi told
PTI, adding "the Coast Guard and senior officials (Directorate
General of Shipping) are now at the site".
According to officials, Chitra was carrying about 1200
containers which had over 266 tonnes of fuel. "Nearly 250
containers have fallen into the sea after the ship tilted
further to 75 degrees today (Sunday)," the official said.
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Additional Coast Guard Pollution Response Equipment has
also been mobilised from Goa and assistance is also being
taken from Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Jawaharlal Nehru
Port Trust and other agencies.
The thick oil slick has been sighted 1.5 to 2 miles
around the vessel Chitra.
The state administration, Pollution Control Board,
Maharashtra Maritime Board and the Bombay History Natural
Society have been kept on high alert for mobilisation of
response resources for shore clean up.
Fishing association has been requested not to carry out
any fishing activities till the oil spill is contained,
officials said.
Thirty-three crew members, including two Pakistanis, were
rescued following the incident.
MSC Chitra, the outbound merchant vessel from JNPT,
collided with MV Khalijia-III, five nautical miles from the
shores at 0950 hours Saturday when the latter was sailing
towards Mumbai Port Trust (MPT), off Mumbai harbour, for
berthing.
The Indian captain and 32 crew members of Chitra were
evacuated and the ship was grounded in the vicinity of the
Prong Reef Lighthouse. PTI VM
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CLOUDBURST-FOREIGNERS
Two French nationals among 145 dead in Leh
Leh, Aug 8 (PTI) Two French nationals were killed in
Friday's devastating cloudburst in Leh in north India while
efforts were on to rescue 174 foreign tourists stranded at
various places in the district.
The bodies of two French nationals identified as
Augariwelus and Hellot-- were extricated from the debris, an
Indo-Tibetan Border Police official said. These are the first
foreign casualties in the tragedy that had left 145 people
dead while over 500 others were missing.
An injured Spanish tourist was evacuated by an army
helicopter from Egu belt to Leh.
There are 174 foreigners stranded at various places
which are at present cut-off, an army official said.
While 76 foreign tourists are stranded at Pang belt,
about 90 are in Lamayaru belt and eight in Darchiks belt in
Leh district.
Efforts are on to airlift them, they said adding that
inclement weather is hampering operations.
Meanwhile, three members of a Tibetan family living in
Leh have died in the flash floods.
However, there was no loss of human life in Sonamling
Tibetan Settlement's camp, located near Choglamsar in Ladakh,
which has been devastated in the floods, a spokesman of
Tibetans in exile said.
"Fortunately, there has been no report of any Tibetan
killed in the camps till now," a senior official of the
Central Tibetan Administration's home department in
Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, said today.
Tibetans on Sunday offered prayers for the victims at
the main Buddhist temple Tsuglakhang in Dharamsala. PTI AB
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