Joshimath crisis: Affected people being evacuated to safer places

Joshimath, Jan 14 (IANS) People affected by land sinking in Joshimath, a hill town of Uttarakhand, are being evacuated to safer places by district administration.

While some of the affected have shifted to their relatives' places, others are in temporary relief camps.

Studies are being conducted on the occurrence of land sinking in Joshimath, during which it came to the fore

that in the past 12 days, land subsidence in the hill town has increased rapidly.

Terrified people are compelled to leave their homes with a heavy heart.

To provide relief to the affected people, the state Cabinet on Friday took decisions to increase their house rent amount to Rs 5,000 per month, waive off their electricity and water bills for a period of six months, freeze loan recovery for a year.

The demolition work of two hotels Malari Inn and Mount View, which had developed cracks and were precariously leaning towards each other posing a threat to the settlements in proximity, continued under the technical supervision of the Roorkee-based Central Building Research Institute (CBRI).

Meanwhile, the District Disaster Management Authority, Chamoli said that 25 families were shifted to temporary relief camps on Friday.

Arrangements have been made in these camps to protect the affected residents from the cold weather conditions. Blankets and food grains have been arranged for them.

However, the number of buildings that developed cracks is 760, out of which only 147 have been declared unsafe.

Chamoli District Magistrate Himanshu Khurana said: "A kitchen has also been made in the camps, which would be open to the affected. They can have food whenever they want. I also ate food with them."

Officers have been instructed to inspect the camps, Khurana said.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that 90 families had been "shifted" so far.

He reassured that houses were being vacated as per requirement and not being demolished.

Reiterating his government's commitment to provide all possible help to the affected, Dhami said that an interim relief of Rs 1.5 lakh each is being given to the affected families from Thursday.

He said: "Rehabilitation work would be done with complete planning. It is a natural calamity and we are taking actions."

The chief minister claimed that life is normal in the hill town.

The state Cabinet meeting chaired by Dhami decided that a relief package proposal would be prepared within a week and sent to the Centre.

State Chief Secretary Sukhbir Singh Sandhu said that short-term and medium-term works would continue in the city with the state government's resources and the money spent on those will be adjusted after getting relief package from the Centre.

After Chamoli district administration conducted survey of Koti Farm, Pipalkoti, Gauchar, Gaunkh Sailang and Dhak village for short-term rehabilitation of the affected, the cabinet gave in-principle approval to construction of pre-fabricated structures.