MANIPUR LANDSLIDE: Assam Government brings back 5 injured; 12 still missing
STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The Assam Government today successfully brought back five people who had sustained injuries in the landslide at the Tupul railway yard construction site in the Noney district of Manipur on June 29.
The five injured persons were brought by air to Guwahati from Manipur. Here they were inspected by doctors and then they were sent back to their homes in Morigaon. The five persons have been identified as Maniram Phukan, Ramen Phukan, Maheswar Phukan, June Basumatary and Prahlad Basumatary. Doctors said that their condition was now stable.
The number of people from Assam who lost their lives in the Manipur landslide is nine so far. Their bodies were retrieved and brought home for cremation by the Assam Government. A total of 12 people are still missing. A total of 26 people from Assam were present at the Tupul railway yard construction site when the landslide hit. Of them, 24 people were working for a construction company, one was an Army jawan who died in the tragic incident, and one was a railway engineer who is still missing.
As per the instruction of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, minister Pijush Hazarika arranged to bring back the injured persons from Manipur. Talking to media persons, Hazarika said that if more bodies of people from Assam are retrieved from the debris or if more injured persons are rescued, the government would take all steps to bring them back to their hometowns.
According to Haulianlal Guite, the Deputy Commissioner of the Noney district, a total of 81 persons were present at the landslide site. Of them, 43 were Army jawans, 26 were workers of the construction company, three were Railway personnel, five were local villagers and four others have not been identified as yet.
Meanwhile, with four more bodies recovered today, the death toll in the landslide increased to 46, including 30 Territorial Army soldiers, while search operations were under way in inclement weather to locate the 17 still missing, officials said. The four deceased included three Territorial Army personnel and another person who was unidentified as the body was mutilated.
Despite fresh landslides on Sunday and continuous hostile weather conditions, the intensive search operations by the Indian Army, the Assam Rifles, the Territorial Army, and the National and State Disaster Response Forces continued at the incident site at Tupul, district officials said. Senior Army and disaster management officials are camping in ground zero supervising the rescue and recovery operations in the landslide-devastated mountainous Tupul. The 'Through Wall Radar' and search and rescue dogs were inducted to hasten the search operation, officials said.
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