40 school children rescued from overflowing river

As many as 40 school children were today rescued after they were caught in the overflowing Dhoodali river here, police said.

The children of a private school were rescued by police at Premnagar area where they had gone for a picnic, they said.

Due landslides triggered by heavy rains the pilgrimage to Gangotri shrine in Garhwal Himalayas remained suspended for second consecutive day today.

The landslides that hit Rishikesh-Gangotri national highway at Karmkund yesterday, could not be cleared despite the police, ITBP and BRO personnel working day and night to reopen the route, the Disaster Management and Mitigation Centre here stated.

However, the yatra to two other shrines of Badrinath and Yamunotri was resumed today after the removal of debris of landslides from Chhinka and Ranachatti respectively, it said.

Moderate to heavy rainfall continued to lash most parts of the state with major rivers of Ganga and Yamuna flowing near danger level.

Uttarakhand has so far received 19 per cent more rainfall than the average this monsoon season claiming more than 80 lives and damaging property worth crores of rupees, Met office here said.

The inclement weather also forced Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank to cancel his visit to Almora as his chopper could not take off due to bad weather, a government spokesman said.