UP BJP to collect relief funds for calamity-hit Uttarakhand

LUCKNOW: In view of devastation in Uttarakhand due to flash floods and landslips, the Uttar Pradesh unit of BJP today decided to collect funds for the calamity-hit people in the hill state, where thousands are feared to have been killed.

In a statement issued here, state unit president Laxmi Kant Bajpai said that the fund raising campaign would be started with the BJP MLAs donating their one month salary.

Bajpai said that the district presidents would send the collected money to the state president, who would forward it to Uttarakhand unit of the party.

He said that the party cadres would also extend assistance to the relief work being carried out by RSS and BJP workers in the neighbouring state.

The state president said that besides funds, edibles and other necessary items would also be collected from people to dispatch it to the rain-ravaged state.

The Himalayan tragedy continued to unfold today with fears that thousands of pilgrims staying in 90 rest houses in Uttarakhand may have been washed away in flash floods even as rescue operations were today stepped up with additional IAF choppers pressed into service to evacuate stranded people in Kedarnath area.