Unrecovered bodies of 2013 tragedy: HC seeks govt reply

Nainital: The Uttarakhand high court on Wednesday sought the response of the state government on a petition, which claimed that the bodies of thousands of victims of 2013 flash floods have not been recovered and cremated so far.
A division bench of chief justice K M Joseph and justice VK Bisht asked the Uttarakhand government to give its counter affidavit on the petition filed by a Delhi- based activist.
The petition, filed in June 2014, alleged that most of the victims of 2013 “Himalyan Tsunami” were not cremated.
Ajay Gautam, the petitioner, told TOI: “The last time when the body parts of the Kedarnath victims were sighted was in June 16 this year. The high court has considered my plea and took the matter seriously.”
Gautam said that more than 3,500 people were killed in the flash floods, but the bodies of only 450 victims were recovered. Rest are still missing.
The petitioner also referred to the exclusive TOI story dated June 28, 2015. The news report had said that a plan to match the DNA of all the decomposed bodies that were cremated onsite has been shelved. As per the report, the state and the Central government have termed the exercise as "undesirable".
The petition said that the thousands of dead deserve proper last rites.
A supplementary affidavit was also submitted by the petitioner on March 24, 2015 stating that the responsible officials should be held accountable for death in June 2013 tragedy.
The Union home ministry's disaster management division, when contacted by TOI, had said that the responsibility of funding as well as managing the logistics rested with the Uttarakhand government.