State Emergency Operations Center of Uttarakhand has reported that 68 people, including 21 Nepalis, have gone missing due to the Dharali flood.
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Prakash Budha of Kailali Tikapur was working as a laborer in Dharali in Harshil area of Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand. A hotel was being constructed in Dharali Bazar. 9 people including Prakash and his brother Ramesh worked in it. A few days' wages were yet to be received.
Three weeks ago, the Dharali market was devastated by the flood that occurred in the Kheerganga river after the sudden Arighopte rains. Along with Prakash, his family also washed away the hotel where he was working as a wage earner. Not only did the hotel flow, their wages also flowed there.
"Even the money kept in the room was washed away in the flood, the moneylender did not pay the remaining amount to be calculated," said the old man.
Prakash's brother Ramesh and daughter-in-law Priya are missing in the same flood. He said that after reaching Haridwar on Friday, an effigy of Kush was made and Kiriya was performed along with the last rites. He said that Kiriya's work was also completed within two days. He informed that he is going to come home from Haridwar on Saturday.
'The gravel is filled up to thirty/forty feet, there is no possibility of finding a body in it,' Budha said, 'some of the relatives of the missing are in Dharali, some are in Haridwar and some have returned home and started doing kiriya.' Uttarakhand's State Emergency Operations Center has reported that 68 people, including 21 Nepalese, have gone missing due to the Dharali flood.
The Uttarakhand government has announced to give 5 lakh rupees as relief to the Indian citizens who went missing due to floods. But in the case of Nepalese, they neither got the wages nor relief. "Indian citizens have been told to give 5 lakhs, but we have not even received the wages we have worked for," says the old man, "now it is very difficult to return home because there are no expenses." His relatives have also reached home. "We have come to do kiriya at home," said Ganesh, the brother of Karn Bahadur Singh, who disappeared in the flood, "others have also returned with us." They entered Nepal through Rupedia border on Friday.
Lately, search operations in Dharali have slowed down and the chances of finding the missing persons are low, so the relatives have returned. They have returned to do kiriya at home. The victims complain that the embassy has not taken any initiative in rescuing the Nepalese who are in Dharali area since the search for the missing persons.
"Now we are stuck because of lack of funds, the embassy has not even contacted anyone," Budha said, "so many people are missing, they don't seem to be interested in finding them."
In that area, the Nepalese were working as wage laborers from apple orchards to vegetable cultivation and development construction. Elders say that many of them did not even get their wages after the flood. He said that there is a problem because some of the owners are missing.
