Residents of Joshimath, the Himalayan pilgrim town that appears to be sinking, have blamed major power and road infrastructure projects for their plight, while demanding that the government resettle and give new homes to all those who have lost their properties in the town.
A day after Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami’s visit, residents continued their protest on Sunday as they blamed the Tapovan-Vishnugad power project of the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) for the “irreversible” damage. Atul Sati, the convener of the Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti which is leading the protest, said the government only stopped the development project when the town was on the brink of disaster. “We had warned years back that NTPC’s work is going to get this town to sink. No one paid heed. Look at the situation of Joshimath now,” he said. Putting equal onus on the construction of the Helang-Marwari bypass by the Border Roads Organisation, Dinesh Chaudhary, a shopkeeper in Sunil village of the Joshimath region, said that merely halting the projects would not help.
On Sunday, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) convened a high-level review of the situation. The PM also held discussions with Mr. Dhami about the situation. Uttarakhand Chief Secretary S.S. Sandhu informed the review meeting that after a ground-level assessment, it was determined that a strip of land around 350 metres wide had been affected.
A team of the National Disaster Response Force and four of the State Disaster Response Force have reached Joshimath, where the district administration is working with the affected families to evacuate and relocate them to safer places with adequate arrangements for food, shelter and security.
Dehradun-based social activist Anoop Nautiyal, however, alleged that the Chamoli district administration had only managed to evacuate 68 families in a week and make temporary rehabilitation arrangements for 1,271 people. He said the slow pace at which the administration was working on evacuation and rehabilitation was not enough in this “time of emergency”. Members of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) are scheduled to visit the town today to assess the situation and advise the Uttarakhand government.
Meanwhile, a petition filed before the Delhi High Court has sought a direction to the Centre to constitute a committee headed by a retired judge to look into the sinking of Joshimath in Uttarakhand and to rehabilitate the affected families.
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