President to donate one month's salary for Uttarakhand victims

NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee will donate his one month's salary for the victims of flood-ravaged Uttrakhand.

The President has asked the department concerned to send his one month's salary to Uttrakhand Chief Minister's relief fund, official sources said here today.

The monthly salary of the President is Rs 1.5 lakh. The toll in the unprecedented tragedy yesterday rose to 680 with 123 bodies being recovered from Kedarnath area and Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna saying the casualty figures may touch the 1,000 mark given the massive scale of devastation.

Mukherjee has already cancelled his annual retreat to Himachal Pradesh so that there was no extra burden on the state government which is also fighting the unprecedented rains.

Mukherjee was scheduled to visit Shimla from June 28 to July 1.

Several parts of Himachal Pradesh including Mandi, Kufri, Kasauli and Kinnaur received heavy rains causing damage to property. Even Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had to be airlifted from Kinnaur after he was trapped due to landslides for nearly 50 hours.