[ Bengia Ajum ]
ITANAGAR, 16 Oct: The state government has issued instruction to the East Kameng deputy commissioner to extend all support to the search and rescue (S&R) team engaged in trying to locate missing Everester Tapi Mra and his assistant Niku Dao.
The 13-member S&R team, including family members, mountaineers, and local porters, which is conducting a foot-based S&R operation for the missing duo, reached the base camp of Mt Khyarii Satam on Saturday.
The family members of Mra had claimed that the state government did not extend any help to resume the search operation, and had alleged that the East Kameng DC created a hurdle in the process.
Disaster Management Secretary Dani Salu informed that Chief Minister Pema Khandu and Chief Secretary Dharmendra have issued instruction to provide all necessary support to the S&R team.
Salu has written a letter to East Kameng DC Pravimal Abhisekh Polumatla, detailing the areas where the district administration should extend support.
“Army/Air Force helicopter may be requisitioned by the district administration of East Kameng district for search and rescue operation of Tapi Mra and Niku Dao by their family members and volunteers. In case the helicopter requisition is delayed due to bad weather and family members have marched on foot to carry out the search and rescue operation, the district administration of East Kameng is to extend all possible help to the search and rescue team to keep them safe and healthy in their mission,” the letter read.
“Medical help, food, clothes, and other lifesaving necessities, as well as reinforcement, should be sent to help and keep the search and rescue team safe and healthy and carry forward their search operation safely and successfully,” the letter added.
The DC has also been directed to requisition helicopters and “remain ready for carrying out aerial rescue operation or dropping of essential emergency commodities or equipment for the missing Everester, his aide, and the volunteers and family members of the search and rescue party, as the case may be.”
The letter further asked the DC to instruct the S&R team to make the safety of their own lives their first priority.
“That they have signed the indemnity bond in the presence of an executive magistrate to carry out the mission at their own will and own risk should not be the reason that they should risk their own lives, nor the reason for district administration not to extend all possible medical and other emergency lifesaving steps, either in the form of medicine, food, cloth, shelter, etc, or in carrying out emergency rescue operations,” the letter added.
Earlier, in a letter dated 12 October, the East Kameng district administration had appealed to the S&R team not to undertake the rescue operation and return to a safe place immediately, citing bad weather conditions in the area.
Mra and Dao have been missing since 17 August, after they had set out to climb Mt Khyarii Satam in East Kameng district.
The present S&R operation is being conducted at the initiative of the family members of Tapi Mra, after the two failed attempts by the district administration.
