Give estimate of flood losses by Monday, CM tells officers
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 27
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna held a meeting with state government officials to obtain information about the losses incurred in the state due to the disaster and also the relief and rehabilitation works being undertaken in affected areas.

He also inquired about the relief works being carried out in Rudraprayag, Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Pithoragarh and Bageshwar and reviewed the progress of these works with the district magistrates of disaster affected districts through video-conferencing.

On help being sought from the central government, the Chief Minister said it should be in accordance with the situation on the ground. He has asked for the ground estimate of the losses suffered by Monday. He emphasised on giving priority to flood control work. The officials were also asked to ensure that help reached the needy on time.

Bahuguna said there ought to be alternativee routes to the char dham and Hemkunt Sahib.

The Chief Minister informed the officials that the central government was extending all possible help to the state. The officials were asked to ensure that rations reached the cut-off villages free of cost, for which the funds would be provided by the government. Transportation charges would also be borne by the government.

Monetary relief should be provided to the affected family members at the earliest.

The Chief Minister also directed the district magistrates of Rudraprayag, Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Pithoragarh and Bageshwar to recruit retired patwaris, kanungos and naib tehsildars on a contractual basis till February 28. This would speed up the relief work. He also ordered additional assistance of Rs 25,000 from the Chief Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund for the wives of those missing or dead. He asked the officials to distribute solar lights in villages where electricity supply had not yet been restored. He was informed that the work of compensation was almost over and the other works were on.

Ensure speedy connectivity to affected villages: Tolia
Jotirmay Thapliyal
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 27
Dr Raghunandan Singh Tolia is a former Uttarakhand Chief Secretary and ex-Chief Information Commissioner of the state. Apart from his administrative skills, Dr Tolia is a man of letters. He has written numerous articles and books which include British Kumaon Garhwal, Handbook for Public Information Officers and essays on development initiatives in Uttarakhand.

Talking to The Tribune, Dr RS Tolia stressed on ensuring speedy connectivity to the affected villages. In the aftermath of disaster, it should be the first priority of the authorities to ensure that connectivity is restored in the villages that have been cut off at the earliest. “First of all, we have to take up the basic requirements of the affected villages and provide them with immediate relief before going for long-term measures,” he said. He said both long-term and short-term reconstruction and rehabilitation measures should be taken up to ensure that the reconstruction and rehabilitation goes in the right direction.

Expressing reservation over the diatribe launched by environmentalists against hydro-power projects, Dr Tolia said none could deny that power is a necessity for sustenance. While supporting precautions in their construction, Dr Tolia asserted that it was wrong to pass judgments on an issue that one knows little of. He said many parts of Garhwal and Kumaon hills today face an acute power crisis due to non-availability of power and opposing hydro-power projects was not justified under such circumstances.

He said there was no sense in relating natural disasters with hydro-power projects. He reminded that even during the massive Uttarkashi earthquake, the epicentre of the quake was close to the site of Maneri hydro project, but the dam withstood the tremors and there was not even a hairline crack anywhere in the dam. He said environmentalists must think before making such comments.

Dr Tolia also supported the regulation of flow of pilgrims to the char dham yatra. He said mass tourism could not be allowed in environmentally fragile Himalayas and needed to be regulated. “It is almost like regulating traffic. Don’t we have a restriction on the number of pilgrims going to Kailash Mansarovar? Similarly, the number of pilgrims to char dham can be regulated. There is nothing wrong in it,” he said.

Referring to the disaster preparedness mechanism in Uttarakhand, he said the state has a Disaster Management Act 2005 with as many as 79 Sections and will power was needed to ensure its implementation. He said during the time of the Uttarkashi earthquake in 1991 and Malpa landslides 1998, there was no such Act, but today we could assess both and successes and failures in dealing with disasters in respect to adhering to the provisions of the Act.

Dr Tolia also suggested that any policy-making linked to dealing with the natural disaster should be prepared in the hills. "You can’t have a feel of hardships and difficulties being faced by the people in the hills in the aftermath of rain disaster just sitting in Dehradun,” he argued. He even supported having Diaster Mitigation and Management Centre headquarters at Gairsain rather than Dehradun. He favoured making officers more accountable and asserted that complacency on disaster linked affairs must be dealt with strictly.

Dr Tolia currently occupies a Chair for Centre for Public Policy at Doon University and also heads Central Himalayan Environment Association (CHEA) in Nainital. One of the earliest societies founded in North India, CHEA has 'the environment and the livelihood of the people in the Himalayas ' as its core concern. Dr Tolia is credited with setting up of the State Information Commission and promoting the Right to Information Act in a big way.

Saket Bahuguna convinces DAV students to end stir
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 27
Congress leader Saket Bahuguna yesterday reached DAV (PG) College here and convinced protesting students to end their agitation. Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna had earlier assured the agitating students of prompt redress of their concerns regarding self-financed courses in the college, Saket told the students that the state government was sensitive towards their concerns and would address their genuine issues soon.

He also met principal of the college Dr Devendra Bhasin. MLA, Rajpur, Rajkumar, president of the DAV (PG) College Students' Union Mahesh Jagudi and a large number of students were present on the occasion.

Scientists to study Kedar disaster
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 27
The Uttarakhand government will soon depute teams of scientists from the National Institute of Hydrology (Roorkee), the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG), the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing and the Uttarakhand State Application Centre (USAC) to Kedar vally to provide an explanation on the natural disaster. 

DM orders to streamline relief material supply
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 27
District Magistrate RM Sundaram visited the Disaster Relief Centre at Maharana Pratap Sports College in Raipur recently. After gathering information about the relief supply sent to the affected regions, he directed the officials to send the supply only when it will be demanded from the officials of the respective districts. He said the donors and the industrialists who were sending relief supply, must be apprised about these things.

“The donors are willing to help but they have no idea about the things that are required now in the disaster affected places," said Sundaram. Around 100 tents and 350 blankets were donated by the government employees of various departments.

UKD factions fight over building not owned by party
Seema Sharma
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 27
Besides the district administration and the police, the owners of the building, where the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) has its office, are unable to understand who runs the party.

The two factions of the UKD led by Trivender Singh Panwar and Kashi Singh Aeri are fighting over the building that does not belong to the party. There are three owners of the building, namely Shailander Dutt Mamgai, Akhilesh Chander Mamgai and Navin Dutt Mamgai. They have a joint house adjacent to it.

Senior UKD leader BD Raturi had taken the building from its owners six years ago after getting it vacated from a few advocates, who were forcibly occupying it. He had set up the party office there. But ever since Raturi was thrown out of the UKD, other leaders who took his place did not leave the building. The owners do not know against whom to file a case because both factions are claiming to be the real UKD.

While the owners have been denied the right over the building, which is worth several crores of rupees, both UKD factions have been occupying it without paying any rent. The building is located in a prime location in the vicinity of the offices of the SSP and the District Magistrate, Doon Hospital, the District Courts, the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, Drone Hotel, the Tehsil Crossing and Paltan Bazaar.

Mohit Mamgai, son of Akhilesh Chander Mamgai, said, “In early 60s, a senior bureaucrat, DS Chauhan, had taken the building (then house) on rent. After Chauhan’s death, his wife Ahilaya Chauhan continued to stay in it. The Chauhans had sublet two front rooms to their relative Ajit Tomar, who was studying law. When Ahilaya asked Ajit to vacate the rooms, he refused and continued to stay there till he died around 10 years ago. Ahilaya had predeceased Ajit.

But after Ajit’s death some lawyers occupied the rooms saying the former owed them several lakhs of rupees and hence they would not leave the place until they recovered their dues. The Mamgai family dreads taking any action against them.

Mohit said the lawyers would often consume liquor and make noise there. They had to call the police several times. It was in 2007 that Raturi had offered to help them to evict the lawyers from the house. He added, “Raturi had taken the building for sometime, promising to get it vacated from the lawyers. He told us that the state government was likely to allot space to the UKD at some other place. But Raturi and Diwakar Bhatt were later thrown out of the UKD. Trivender Singh Panwar then took over as the president of the party. Another faction of the party led by Aeri also arrived here. They have since been fighting over the control of the building. We don’t know against whom to move court.” 

No perishable items, old clothes for disaster affected regions: DM
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 27
The new District Magistrate, RM Sundaram, has urged the donors not to send perishable items and old clothes for disaster affected regions.

He told mediapersons in his office that, “I have appealed to the donors not to send perishable items such as biscuits, flour etc. These were required in the initial stages of rescue and evacuation operations. Now, the demands are coming for tents, tarpaulin, 
blankets, solar lights and other non-perishable items such as oil, salt, garam-masala 
and sugar.”

“The perishable material and old clothes are still being sent to the affected districts. But these are lying discarded or unused. As many as 15 trucks of old clothes are stationed at the relief centre without any takers for them," he added. He said he had given directions to give water bottles and medicines to hospitals, biscuits to anganwadi and schools in Dehradun district and to make mats from old clothes.

The Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Authority had been asked to provide another supply of 8,000 solar lanterns but Director Ashish Joshi, expressed constraints of budget.

While discussing about pending bills with regard to fuel and other expenses, he said, “As per the regulations, DM has the power to withdraw around Rs 2.5 crore from treasury for emergency expenditures. Since the expenditures were made to provide relief to other districts, we made expenditures of around Rs 5 crore.” 38 people were declared missing from the district in the flash floods.

“The verification process of the missing would be completed in next couple of days. Thereafter, the distribution of relief assistance would start," he added.

Teachers airlifted to open schools
BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, July 27
The district administration has started sending teachers by helicopters to the Darma and Johar valleys to open schools closed for the past 40 days. The administration sent teachers of Intermediate College at Makam Kailas, junior high schools at Kurila and primary schools at Khet and Pangla by Army and private helicopters yesterday.

“Even teachers who have their residences near primary schools have not been able to attend duty due to damaged roads. We managed to send them to the Darma and Johar valleys by helicopters and they would open the closed schools. They will be delivered ration through helicopters later,” said Pramod Kumar, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Dharchula.

Kumar said the people living in these remote areas had been complaining of absence of teachers in the schools. Students had been waiting for the schools to open which were closed due to the natural disaster last month.

“More than 36 teachers of schools situated in the disaster-hit high valleys have not been able to attend duty due to damaged roads. The poor students have been suffering,” said the SDM. 

Loan mela held for disabled 
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 27
The Cheshire Livelihood Resource Centre conducted a loan mela-cum-awareness camp for persons with disabilities at Cheshire Home, here today. The programme was conducted by Brig SP Nanda. The participants were the Uttarakhand Gramin Bank, the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, the Social Welfare Department and the Employment Exchange.

They enumerated various schemes during the mela.

Uttarakhand Gramin Bank loan manager SS Negi explained about the loan schemes for self-employment and higher studies for persons with disability.

Many candidates who were willing to take loan for self-employment cleared their queries on the spot.

The Social Welfare Department also discussed different schemes under it.

Development officer, Khadi and Village Industries Commission, JK Malik, highlighted various vocational training programmes that would be sponsored by the commission on subsidised loan.

Employment Officer Neetu Singh gave information about the government Berojgari Bhatta Scheme.

Cheshire Homes India was set up by Lord Leonard Cheshire for the rehabilitation of mentally and physically disabled persons all over world after the Second World War.

Rain hampers work even as 11 villages still delinked
Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, July 27
The rains are affecting the repair work en route the villages in Johar valley. The flow of River Gori has become a big hurdle in erecting chain pulleys across the river. According to the sources, around 7,000 people from 11 villages in Darma valley are yet to be connected with roads. The two bridges in Kanchoti and Tawaghat, which were washed away in the flash floods needs to be connected.

“The broken Kanchoti bridge was meant to link the Darma valley. The bridge at Tawaghat was the main link for Chaudans valley,” said Dharchula SDM Pramod kumar.

“The road link to Darma and Chaudans valleys are also broken as the bridges on the Kali and Dhauli rivers were washed in the floods," said the SDM.

Public Works Department (PWD) engineers are working to open the local routes in the Johar valley as the flow of the Gori is playing havoc with the construction work.

“Despite these odds, we have successfully installed a trolley in Sangaltar of Johar. We are also working to install trolleys in Sela, Chal, Bon and Bansbagar areas of Munsiyari subdivision,” said GC Arya, superintendent engineer of PWD.