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Indian Army Brigadier RP Singh visited cloudburst-hit Samej village in Himachal Pradesh on Saturday and took stock of the situation.
He also inspected the ongoing rescue and restoration work there. The cloudburst incident took place on August 1. Giving information about the rescue operations undertaken by the Army, he told ANI, "We have deployed a 20-ton excavator here. Five more excavators will reach here tomorrow. Work is going on in collaboration with the civil administration and the National Disaster Response Force". He added that during the search operations, efforts are being made to retrieve as many bodies as possible and a quadcopter and sniffer dogs have been used He further said that a JCB machine had already been deployed. Earlier in the day, the Indian Army launched extensive Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations to aid the affected communities in Himachal Pradesh's Samej village. According to the Indian Army, the road to the incident site was blocked due to a land shift approximately 2.5 kilometres short of the incident site, after which troops moved on foot beyond the blockade. The Army's Engineer Task Force (ETF) repaired the road and made it operational on Friday itself. The equipment was temporarily stuck at the blockade site but reached the incident site later, after the road was repaired. On Friday, the Army also completed the construction of the improvised footbridge, thus facilitating the move of rescue teams towards the far bank of the river and the rescue of civilians stranded on the far bank. After the catastrophic cloudbursts hit different areas of Himachal Pradesh, including Samej, state minister Vikramaditya Singh on Saturday said that around 50 people are feared dead in the affected areas, and the official number can only be declared after official confirmation and completion of rescue operations. Speaking with ANI, Himachal Pradesh minister Vikramaditya Singh said, "The main priority of the government is to retrieve the bodies from the site, as the catchment area of the destruction spot is huge. Apart from this, the government is making all efforts to restore connectivity in affected areas as soon as possible. It is being feared that around 50 deaths have taken place, but it can only be officially confirmed after the rescue operations." (ANI)
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