Yearning for their return, kin of 25 persons missing in U’khand stay away from festivities

In this festive season, the families of those who have gone missing in the Uttarakhand floods continue to grieve for their near and dear. On Friday, it would be three months since the tragedy struck Uttarakhand. Twenty-five persons, including 16 women, from Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad and other parts of the district have gone missing. The affected families have now lodged an FIR with the local as well as the Uttarakhand police.

Dhanashree Kadam's search for her missing parents, Yashwant and Alka More, has drawn a blank. This, she said, despite her brother visiting Uttarakhand twice. "It is an ordeal for our family. We never thought that our lives would take such a tragic turn. Even during Ganesh festival and Gauri festival, we are not in the right spirits to celebrate. I am obsessed my the thought of my parent's well-being. How can we celebrate festivals without them?" she asked.

Vasant Kamthe still hopes for a safe return of his four family members, including his wife. "Those who are missing might have been hospitalised and would have been too critical to contact us. To keep myself going on, I recently even consulted a fotune-teller, who told me my family members were possibly safe and could be back home by September end," he said.

Pune District Disaster Management Officer Vitthal Banote said the Uttarakhand police had recently visited Pune and met with the families of those missing. "They collected photographs of the missing persons and asked for their identity marks. They also confirmed the identity of families of those missing," he said.

Banote said though 160 more bodies were found in the third round of combing operations in Kedar Valley, there was nobody from Pune. The group of 25 missing persons is believed to have belonged to Shivgauri Travels. They have been missing from Rambada sector of Uttarakhand, which was completely destroyed.

Friday 13 September 2013

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