Crucial connection

Distress calls from all over the country have been flooding Uttarakhands emergency helpline

Puja Rawat is clearly a multi-tasker. As part of the team thats manning helplines set up at the Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre DMDC in Dehradun after last months devastating floods in Uttarakhand,Rawat has no choice but to be one. She checks emails on her computer and occasionally turns around to talk to official representatives from other states who crowd around her chair seeking informationall this while talking into the phone,almost without a break.

Its 10 am on Wednesday,July 3. The phone rings for the nth time since morning. First tell me your name and contact number, Puja tells the caller and starts scribbling furiously in a notebook. Name8230;age8230;the last location of contact on the phone8230;.

The caller is from Hyderabad and says eight of his family have gone missing in Kedarnath. He also wants to know about the impact of the disaster on Kedar valley. Puja updates him and consoles him,saying everything will be well.

The caller hangs up. Puja has barely taken her hand off the receiver when it rings again. The caller is Punam Khandelwal from Jaipur in Rajasthan. My parents have gone to Kedarnath. Please tell me about the situation there, she says. Puja updates her on the weather and other details,before adding: Dont worry. The government is on the job and everything will be well soon.

Two years ago,Puja,25,who has a Masters in Computer Application,joined the DMDC office at the Uttarakhand secretariat as a duty in-charge. She says she is lucky to have been chosen to work with the emergency centre so soon into her job. Her seniors have told her thats it a job that requires a high degree of patience and she is clearly doing well. While she handles countless calls,deals with reporters,officers of other states and her bosses who seek updated information,she is never ruffled or ill-tempered. Besides,her English speaking skills have come in handy too since she gets calls from all over the country.

We get calls from Andhra Pradesh,Tamil Nadu,Kerala,Maharashtra,Karnataka,Delhi,Rajasthan,Orissa8230;mostly from states far from Uttarakhand. I guess people from neighbouring states simply rushed to Uttarakhand after hearing about the disaster, she says.

The magnitude of the disaster which struck Uttarakhand on June 16-17 sunk in when she watched TV and read newspaper reports the next morning,she says. DMDC had swung into action by the morning of June 17. I immediately knew this was serious and so,the following morning,I reached office around 7.30 am without being told to, she says.

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The helpline numbers were very important at a time when all communication lines with the states hill areas had broken down. Kedar valley,which bore the brunt of the disaster,was completely cut off with most of the cellphone towers washed away. The emergency operation centre was in touch with the district headquarters of Rudraprayag through satellite phones.

As her shift ends at 7 pm,Puja says this has been the toughest tasks she has ever handled. It was challenging because I had no direct communication with most of the troubled zones. But the callers were in distress,they wanted to know what was happening,and I couldnt let them down. But at times,I felt helpless myself, she says.

Though rescue operations are almost over,Puja is still worried about those who havent found their relatives. I keep looking at the list of missing people. I know most of the names by now because I keep getting calls from their relatives. This is very painful, she says.