Uttarakhand CM Vijay Bahuguna on Friday criticized the hype created around the flash floods in his state, saying it scared away tourists and led to losses of hundreds of crores though only a particular area was affected.
"So much hype was created around the calamity....people are scared of visiting even Dehradun, Rishikesh and Nainital even though these places are as safe as Delhi," said Bahuguna at a seminar titled 'Resurgent Uttarakhand', which The Times of India Group had organized in association with the state government.
"Our tourism is badly affected and we have suffered losses worth Rs 12,000 crore."
Bahuguna said the temple area in Kedarnath, which the floods had devastated and killed around 6,000 people besides stranding another one lakh, was safe and had been cleaned up for puja to restart from September 11.
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