A survivor pleads with a soldier to allow her mother to board an army helicopter during rescue operations at Badrinath in Uttarakhand on Friday. (Reuters)

Patna, June 21: The toll of missing persons from Bihar in the Uttarakhand deluge has risen to nearly 669, of whom 98 people have been rescued.

The emergency operation centre (EOC) of the Bihar disaster management department had received reports of 233 people missing on Thursday, which rose to 669 today.

“We are in continuous communication with the authorities in Uttarakhand to retrieve the location of missing persons from Bihar. The authorities have informed that most downhill roads from Uttarkashi to Rishikesh and Dehradun have been opened now and people are coming out in small vehicles. As of today, we have received reports of 669 people from different districts of the state, of whom 98 persons have been rescued,” said C.B. Pandey, inspector at EOC.

The state disaster management department put its emergency operation centre here on alert on Thursday. People can enquire about the whereabouts of missing persons by dialling the centre’s 24x7 helpline number (0612-2217305).

Those who survived the catastrophe are now on a tough trail on their return journey. A native of Gopalganj district, Hardindra Mishra, who had gone to Uttarakhand as part of a group of 52 pilgrims, said they started their 45km tedious walk on Friday. “We were stranded at Jankichatti for the past five days. We were told by the administration yesterday that most downhill roads have been cleared and we can either walk down or go in small vehicles. We would be walking down to Banskothi, which is located around 45km from here. From Banskothi, we would be going to Rishikesh in taxis, from where we would take state transport buses for travelling to Hardwar, where we have parked our mini-bus,” said Mishra.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar today announced monetary compensation for affected persons from Bihar and also sent a team of experts from the public health and engineering department to Dehradun.

Chief secretary Ashok Kumar Sinha has been instructed to be in continuous touch with the Uttarakhand administration and make arrangements for sending teams of doctors and necessary medicines from Bihar.

The families of those from Bihar who have died in the Uttarakhand deluge would be given Rs 2 lakh as compensation by the state government, which includes Rs 1 lakh from the chief minister’s relief fund. Nitish had also extended financial support of Rs 5 crore to the Uttarakhand government on Thursday.