Sriprakash Jaiswal gives one month's salary for Uttarakhand flood victims

NEW DELHI: Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal has contributed one month's salary to help the victims of the natural calamity that struck Uttarakhand.

"Sriprakash Jaiswal...has contributed his one month's pay to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund for helping the victims of recent natural calamity in Uttarakhand," an official statement said here.

Jaiswal also made an appeal to the employees of PSUs under the Coal Ministry and the citizens across the country to contribute generously to help the victims affected by the tragedy, it added. "This humane gesture would definitely encourage others to contribute to the best of their ability towards this cause," the statement said.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said the death toll in flood-ravaged Uttarakhand may cross the 1,000 mark once the process of clearing of debris ends. However, fresh rains, landslides and cloudburst today sent further shudders in flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, impeding operations to evacuate over 10,000 stranded people even as the state government barred other states from undertaking unilateral rescue efforts.

Bad weather grounded most of the big military choppers from bringing people to safety. Small helicopters managed to evacuate only 138 from Badrinath, Pandukeshwar and Lambagar in Chamoli district.