The State government finds itself in a piquant situation in its efforts to transport pilgrims rescued from the Char Dham yatra to their respective destinations.
Though the government has arranged a chartered flight to ferry the pilgrims who are housed in AP Bhavan, New Delhi, some of them are refusing to leave the place. They are determined to wait for the return of their kith and kin whose whereabouts are not yet known.
Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, who reached AP Bhavan on Tuesday morning, was confronted with questions from the rescued pilgrims asking the whereabouts of their relatives. They wanted him to instruct officials to get in touch with their counterparts in Uttarakhand to locate the missing persons.
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Mr. Kiran Kumar Reddy had a tough time in convincing them that the government was making all out efforts, including hiring of chartered flights and deputing senior officials to Dehradun.
Besides, a special aircraft would leave Dehradun on Wednesday evening and all pilgrims would be provided assistance in Hyderabad to reach their native places. A Boeing 737 of Jet Airways with a capacity of 168 would leave Dehradun at 5.15 pm and reach Shamshabad airport at 7.30 pm.
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The government had also deputed another IAS officer Adityanath Das to oversee the relief operations at AP Bhavan. On instructions from the Chief Minister, Ministers D. Sridhar Babu and N. Uttam Kumar Reddy called on Air Marshal Siris Deo, Director General (Operations), requesting him increase the frequency of choppers.
Control room
Mr. Kiran Reddy told reporters later that the government had sent 1,600 pilgrims back to their respective destinations so far. A control room set up for the purpose was closely monitoring the situation.