ITBP personnel rescue pilgrims with the help of a ropeway constructed above Alaknanda river at Lambagar in Uttarakhand on Monday. (PTI)

Patna, June 24: Severed underground wires today silenced the state disaster management department’s communication system — its only significant initiative to come in rescue of the pilgrims stranded in Uttarakhand.

The communication network of the department paralysed this afternoon after the underground telephone and Internet cables connected to its emergency operation centre (EOC) at Old Secretariat were severed in course of some civic works. Till the evening, the repairs had not begun.

A senior official of the state disaster management department said: “Our work is basically focused on communication, an integral part of disaster management. We are getting information about missing people from Bihar through our emergency operation centre and district control rooms and co-ordinating with the authorities in Uttarakhand to retrieve them.”

Another official of the EOC said: “Our entire system crashed around 3pm because of snapped wires. Workers digging the ground for laying drainage pipes cut our wires. We have arranged for a JCB machine and waiting for the contractor concerned to get the mess cleared so that we can do our work and revive the communication system.”

The repair work had not commenced till 7pm, by when several people might have called the emergency centre for sharing information on missing pilgrims. The communication with the authorities at the control room in Uttarakhand also remained paralysed till the filing of this report.

The disaster management department had opened the control room in Dehradun for the people from the state stranded in Uttarakhand following the deluge.

Of the total 820 people from the state going missing from different locations in the Himalayan shrines, the emergency hub retrieved the location of 508 before the cables were snapped. The 24x7 helpline number of the EOC is 0612- 2217305.

The emergency centre went on alert with regard to the Uttarakhand deluge on June 20 following instructions from chief minister Nitish Kumar. Till June 19, Nitish was busy securing the victory of the JD(U) in the trust vote in the Assembly. The next day, Nitish held a meeting with senior state government officials and sent a team to Uttarakhand including few of them.

None of the officials from the state disaster management department or its much-touted state disaster response force (SDRF) has gone to Uttarakhand though. The SDRF, which has started functioning from this year, has around 550 personnel, including retired armed forces personnel.

The chief minister had announced on June 20 that a team of doctors and essential drugs from Bihar would be sent to Uttarakhand, if needed. But senior state government officials stationed at Dehradun claimed that there was no such need.

Amid criticism that the state government had done precious little for the deluge-trapped pilgrims of the state, the cabinet today sanctioned Rs 10 crore for ex gratia payment to the relatives of the victims. According to the cabinet decision, the sum would be used for making payment of Rs 2 lakh — Rs 1 lakh each from the chief minister’s relief fund and disaster management department — to the next of the kin of the victims (belonging to Bihar) of the Uttarakhand deluge, cabinet secretary Brajesh Mehrotra told reporters.