Hundreds of bodies still lying in Kedarnath Valley: BJP

Dismissing the state government's claims that Kedarnath Valley has been cleared of bodies, opposition BJP today said that even five months after the mid- June natural calamity in Uttarakhand, hundreds of corpses were lying inside dilapidated structures close to the shrine.

"Five months have passed since a calamity of catastrophic proportions hit Uttarakhand, but there are still hundreds of highly decomposed corpses lying in the buildings close to Kedarnath shrine," Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Ajay Bhatt, said in a statement here.

Accusing the state government of having lied to the nation that Kedar Valley had been cleared of corpses, Bhatt demanded the dismissal of the Bahuguna government for its insensitivity to a tragedy of such scale. Bhatt demanded that a fresh combing operation be launched to find bodies in the Garurchatti and Junglechatti areas of Kedar Valley besides at the buildings on the left flank of the ancient shrine.

To substantiate his charges, Bhatt released recent photographs of what he claimed were decomposed bodies lying inside the debris of dilapidated structures near Kedarnath temple, although he pointed out that the state government alleges these photographs were either old or false. "These photographs were taken by me on October 28 during my visit to Kedarnath... if the state government's claim that these are old is proven correct, I shall retire from politics," he said.

Claiming he had apprised authorities concerned about the ground realities in Kedarnath, both orally and in writing, the BJP leader said the delay on part of the government in acting on those inputs underlined its indifference to the issue.