Rahul Gandhi visits flashflood-hit Leh
By IANSMonday, August 16, 2010
SRINAGAR - A day before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi and Minister of State for Defence M.M. Pallam Raju Monday travelled to Jammu and Kashmir’s Leh region, where 183 people were killed and hundreds displaced in flashfloods earlier this month.
Accompanied by Raju, the Congress leader visited the displaced in relief camps and the injured in hospitals. He assured the people that the Congress and the United Progressive Alliance government would do “everything possible” to help them.
State Tourism Minister Nawang Rigzin Jora, who represents Leh in the assembly, acted as interpreter for the visitors.
Sources quoted Gandhi as saying that Manmohan Singh would be visiting Tuesday and the people should not hesitate to narrate their problems to him. He and the government, Gandhi added, would do everything to help.
Gandhi and the minister also undertook an aerial survey of the areas hit by flash floods.
Defence ministry spokesperson Lt. Col. J.S. Brar said in a press statement that the minister also visited Choglamsar relief camp, one of the worst hit, where he interacted with the locals.
Leh suffered a massive cloudburst on the intervening night of Aug 5-6. The resultant flashfloods swept away homes, communication towers, hospitals and other infrastructure. More than 200 people are still missing.
