Need to train people in disaster mitigation measures: Purohit
Jotirmay Thapliyal
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 28
Natural disasters have been part of the lives of the people of Uttarakhand. It is not the first time that people have died in a calamity triggered by heavy rains. Every monsoon landslides lead to deaths of people, but this time a large number of pilgrims belonging to other states was killed in the natural disaster. The need is to strengthen the disaster management mechanism in the state and train people in disaster mitigation and rescue measures.

This was stated by Padma Shri Prof Aditya Narain Purohit, a former Vice-Chancellor of HNB Garhwal University, Srinagar.

Purohit recalled that he had a close shave in 1981 when he was swept away by a landslide triggered by August rains at Karanprayag. But fortunately he was able to pull himself out of debris. “As Uttarakhand is vulnerable to natural disasters, it is very important that at least some basic training in disaster mitigation and rescue measures is provided to every resident. Mere theoretical efforts won’t do. You need to train people to deal with a natural disaster and this should be done at the government level. Even the State Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre is at present not in a position to do much unless the government in power shows willpower to do it,” he argued.

Purohit said there was a need to regulate mass tourism at all costs. “I have visited the Himalayan state of Bhutan. Seventy-five per cent of Bhutan’s economy is based on tourism but they never emphasise on mass tourism. Instead they go for quality tourism and take all measures to regulate it. While here in Uttarakhand there is no such concept of regulating mass tourism. While a large number of pilgrims come to the state every year, there is little improvement in infrastructure. Thus the vulnerability of the pilgrims to mishaps increases year after year. It may even be in the form of road mishaps,” he said.

He rubbished claims by environmentalists that hydropower projects also contributed to the disaster and said on the contrary these projects helped in preventing casualties when rivers were in spate. “While the Tehri dam helped in saving downstream townships like Deoprayag and Rishikesh from being destroyed by flash floods, even the under-construction Dhari Devi dam protected Srinagar a catastrophe,” Purohit said.

He added those opposing hydropower projects in Uttarakhand had no scientific reasons to do so. “In China there are as many as 500 dams on one river. That country too faces a lot of cloudbursts and landslides. Certainly, the engineering part of dams should be full proof and there should be no compromise on quality,” he said.

Purohit said the road network in Uttarakhand hills should be more tunnel based. “This will prevent roads from being washed away in landslides and also check felling of trees to make roads. Further, one-way traffic movement should be preferred for hills and there should be two-way road connectivity for important hill towns. This will not only reduce road mishaps but also give the administration an alternative road to use in case a road is destroyed or blocked due to landslides,” he said.

He added blasting done for road cutting were also resulting in landslides. “It is unfortunate that all road proposals are made keeping money in mind. Those who construct roads look for ways to minimise expenditure. This is not good. Safety should be the first priority and money should never get precedence over safety,” he said.

On rehabilitation, Purohit said new settlements should not be cluttered and rather should be scattered as congested houses result in more casualties during disasters. He added every settlement should have a storehouse that could have foodgrains that could last up to at least 15 days for that particular village. This stock would be very useful in case of disasters when a large number of villages get cut off from the mainland.

Asked about renewed efforts of the state government to check riverbank construction, he said, “The government in power needs willpower to check construction on riverbanks.” He added interestingly many officers of the Central and state governments were living close to the Alaknanda in Srinagar

He warned that in the aftermath of the natural disaster if immediate remedial measures were not taken it could lead to large scale migration from hills to plains of the state. This was not in the interest of the region.

Purohit said it was unfortunate that while those in power compared Uttarakhand to Switzerland, they failed to understand how Switzerland that has landmass and population similar to our state had shown the world the way to sustainable development that was in consonance with the environment.Purohit was conferred with Padma Shri for his contribution to science and academics in 1997. Purohit is also a former Director of the prestigious Gobind Ballabh Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Almora, and a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, New Delhi, the National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad, and the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi. He belongs to Kimni village in Chamoli district.

UKD (P) protests lathi-charge on party workers 
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 28
Activists of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (Panwar) group staged a demonstration at the district headquarters yesterday. They sought action against police officials responsible for a lathi-charge on fellow party workers a few days ago.

Led by UKD (Panwar) president Trivendra Singh Panwar, party leaders later met District Magistrate R Meenakshi Sundram. They threatened that they would take an extreme step if prompt action was not taken in the matter.

Latafat Hussain, Pramila Rawat, Jai Prakash Uttarakhandi, Virendra Mohan Uniyal and Solochna Bahuguna were prominent UKD leaders that met the District Magistrate.

On the other hand, members of the UKD (Airy) led by NK Gusain met SP, City, Jagdish Chandra and accused the UKD (P) workers of making a murderous assault on Airy. They sought action against UKD (P) activists responsible for the attack on Airy. 

DVWM vehicles to have GPRS gadgets
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 28
The Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) has decided to install General Packet Radio System (GPRS) in all the vehicles engaged in garbage collection work in the city.

Mukhya Nagar Adhikari (MNA) Ashok Kumar said, “With GPRS system in the vehicles, we will be able to know about the real locations of the vehicles. It will also help us in checking whether the vehicles are covering all the premises every day and reaching there on time."

He said the consumers usually complained that the vehicles were not coming regularly to collect garbage from their houses and also reached very late.

However, when confronted against these complaints, the sanitary workers belied the accusations. The DMC officials also plan to check the unregulated activities of the Dehradun Valley Waste Management (DVWM) Project by attaching the GPRS gadgets in the vehicles.

The MNA and Director DVWM had been in scuffle, owing to which Director Sidharth Jain had suspended garbage collection work for a day. Earlier, Jain had claimed to install the GPRS gadgets but he did not do that till date.

Ashok said DVWM was collecting garbage and charging fee from those pockets of the city, that have not been covered under Solid Waste Management Project for which the company has been hired. 

Indian traders exchange goods with Chinese
Our Correspondent

Indian traders move on their yaks towards the Chinese mart of Taklakot. A Tribune photo

Pithoragarh, July 28
Indian tribal traders exchanged Indian goods with those of Chinese in barter system of border trade. They exhanged Indian consumer goods worth Rs 1,85,200, with 4000 kg of Chinese produces besides cement bags and other items, at Taklakot mart in Tibet, ITBP sources said.

According to an assistant commandant of ITBP, Indian traders have taken with them 55 quintals of jaggery, 22.20 quintals of sugar candy and 90 kg of coconut on the demand of Tibetan traders.Till date, seven, traders along with 35 helpers have carried their goods to tibet with the help of 104 mules and 76 horses, said Bhayya Lal, an ITBP assistant commandant , who has been assigned of trade duties by the ITBP.

Border trade this year has started late due to heavy rains and less number of traders have reached the Tibetan mandi compared to last year, when 14 traders had reached. 

Exhibition on Koran held
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 28
A two-day exhibition “Holy Koran in the Mirror of calligraphic art”, organised by Tasmia Koran library started at Tasmia Academy, Dehradun yesterday. The first coloured Koran printed in India in 1908, finds a prominent place in the exhibition. There are translations of the Koran in Russian, Turkish, Chinese and German.

“We have copies of Koran weighing from 2 gm to 2500 kg,” said Dr S Farooq, Trustee, Tasmia Koran library.

HIV, leprosy patients, labourers to benefit
Neena Sharma
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 28
Uttarakhand is expected to gain from the 60 per cent coverage envisaged under the Food Security Scheme of the Central government that will replace the targeted Public Distribution Scheme (PDS) after its implementation. It will be the first scheme to provide subsidised ration to individuals living outside the family structure and those suffering from HIV, AIDS, leprosy and other serious diseases.

It will also cover large workforce, labourers, safai karamacharis, housemaids, persons living in remand homes, people afflicted with serious disease and those with annual income less than Rs 15,000.

In the past, around 5 lakh cardholders were covered under the Antodaya scheme and around 20 lakh BPL cardholders were covered under the PDS targeted distribution scheme. Now, with the Central government setting a target of 60 per cent coverage under the Food Security Scheme, several families and individuals would be brought under it according to the eligibility norms laid down for the state.

“We will have to make new cards for providing 60 per cent coverage, which comes to around 35 lakh families,” said Radha Raturi, Principal Secretary, Food and Civil Supplies.

The government in its road map will publish the list and settle all claims and objections at gram sabhas for rural beneficiaries and at the town committee level for urban beneficiaries.

Under the scheme, each beneficiary in an eligible household will get 5 kg of foodgrains per month at subsidised rates-- rice at Rs 3 per kg wheat at Rs 2 per kg and coarse grain or bajra at Rs 1 per kg.

With much of the focus on providing relief to the people affected by the natural disaster, the Department of Rural Development is planning to start the verification drive before rolling out of the scheme.

The department will soon start cleansing the current list of below poverty line (BPL) of bogus names and names of dead persons to streamline the distribution of ration under the scheme. 

Cong to make food security scheme a success: Arya
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 28
Uttarakhand State Congress President Yashpal Arya has announced that the state Congress will make the food security scheme a big success.

Arya recently attended a meeting in New Delhi which was called by AICC Vice-President Rahul Gandhi.

Arya said the Congress was committed to eradicating hunger. He criticised the baseless and politically motivated propaganda launched by opposition parties against the ongoing rescue and relief operation in Uttarakhand.

He said the Congress general secretary and in-charge of the party affairs in Uttarakhand, Ambika Soni, would visit Dehradun on July 31. Union Minister Jairam Ramesh is also expected to join her.

Return to normalcy will take time as state suffers big losses

It has been one and a half months since the natural disaster struck Uttarakhand causing a massive damage to life and property in the state. Most of the roads, water supply schemes, power lines and infrastructure had been washed away bringing life in the worst-affected districts of Rudraprayag, Uttarkashi, Chamoli and Pithoragarh to a standstill.

After the evacuation operation of the Army, the Air Force and the ITBP, the focus shifted to the miseries of the local population, who bore the burnt of the natural tragedy.

The relief and rehabilitation operations have been continuing for the past one month but it would take time for normalcy to return in these affected areas.

Incessant rain during the ongoing monsoon season has hampered the repair work and delayed the restoration of the connectivity of remote hill villages.

According to the state government, 166 water schemes out of 198 in the Garhwal region and 10 out of 35 schemes in Kumaon region have been restarted. Efforts are on restart the remaining 57 water supply schemes.

Similarly, out of 2,149 blocked roads, the state government claims that 1,720 have been opened to traffic. Work is on to reopen the remaining 429 closed roads.

However, heavy rains during the current monsoon season have damaged more roads and many of the roads that were reopened are again blocked due to fresh landslides.

A total of 4,200 villages were cut off from road connectivity. During the past one and a half months, the state government claimed that 3,733 villages have been reconnected and work has been in progress to reconnect 467 villages to roads.

A total of 37 villages still remain to get electricity back after floods washed away power lines and transformers. Out of 3,758 disaster-affected villages, electricity has been resumed in 3,721 villages.

However, there is a little respite for the people of Uttarakhand as power generation has reached its nadir in the past fortnight. The state needs more than 35 million units per day but due to rains and slit in the river system and due to floods, most of the power stations of the state government, which produce 1,281 MW of power per day, remained shut for a considerable number of time. This led to power cuts in various parts of the state.

To maintain parity with demand and supply, the state government had to buy power from outside sources worth Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore everyday.

A crucial meeting of the Central Government would be held by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the coming days to assess the extent of damage in the state and the road map of relief and rehabilitation work to be undertaken by the Central as well as state governments.

The state government has yet to do its homework in getting a detailed report of the damage done.

The Chief Minister has asked the officials to complete the damage assessment work by July 29.

— S.M.A. Kazmi 

Ropeways connect villages cut off due to disaster
Tribune News service

Dehradun, July 28
The entire population of Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag and Chamoli districts has remained cut off from the rest of the state after roads and bridges were washed away in flash floods last month. About 700 villages across these three districts have remained cut off for more than one month.

Mountain Shepherd, a community tourism enterprise, in active collaboration with the Society of Pollution and Environmental Conservation Scientists, (SPECS) and the Uttarakhand State Council of Science and Technology (UCOST) has come forward to install zipline trolley systems to connect these remote villages to the mainland and provide them access to relief supplies that were reaching road heads only. These ropeways will supplement government relief and rehabilitation efforts that have been moving at a slow pace.

This joint intervention has linked remote villages with the rest of the state by installing ropeways over the Mandakini, near Government Inter College at Agustmuni, Vijay Nagar, Silegad below Makkumath over the Akashgamini and Rakshi rivers. More than 700 families have benefited by these ropeways.

These ropeways have come as a boon for thousands of people living in these land-locked villages as they help in transporting goods and material across the flooded rivers. Ziplines, as these ropeway systems are called in mountains, enabled the villagers to carry across the rivers their household goods to safety. The people are using the ropeways to transport daily ration, gas cylinders and other essential items, thus saving them hours of trudging across dangerous and damaged terrain.

Dr Sunil Kainthola from Mountain Shepherd said the team of NIM-trained youths Narendra Rana from Chamoli and Dharmendra Negi, Harshmani and Mukesh Panwar from Uttarkashi, Himanshu Ahuja and some villagers worked relentlessly during the whole process. This dedicated team has been crossing the flooded rivers, hiking up gorges and ravines to reach remote villages and install these ropeways. Their aim is to install a ropeway in every cut-off village.

Dr Rajendra Dobhal, Director-General, UCOST, said this idea to make ropeways for linking villages with road heads was remarkable. Dr Brij Mohan Sharma, scientist from SPECS, said the application of technology in an innovative way could bring remarkable changes in no time. 

Having lost homes, businesses, victims hope for a new start
One waiting to reunite with kin, another wants house from govt
BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, July 28
Bhagat Ram of Devi Bagar in Madkot area in Pithoragarh district has lost his house and farms in the last month's disaster. He had grown maize to feed his family of eight. Bhagat Ram is at present living at the TRC relief camp in Madkot.

“I had spent my savings of 20 years to construct the house which was swept away by the Gori river within a few seconds. I have six daughters, but no place to lodge them now," said Bhagat Ram.

Bhagat Ram is worried about his future after the relief camp closes.

“I don't want any relief money from the government. All I want is a 'pucca' house, if the government could give me," he added.

Residents of Baluakot have a similar stories to tell. They have been given shelter in a school building.

Motima Devi of Sela village lost her house and agricultural land to the ferocious Kali river.

“My family members are still missing," said the weeping Motima Devi, who had a well-established woollen craft production centre, which was swept away.

“I want to reunite with my family members and then want the government to help me restart my business,” she added.

Rudra Singh of Kultham village in the Darma valley said he had an income of a few lakh rupees by selling 'Yarsa Gumba'. His house as well as his fertile fields of potato and beans were swept away in the floods.

"We have no place to go. The government relief money of Rs 2 lakh could not even match our stock of this year," said Rudra Singh, who is now worried about his eight children.

Jawahar Singh’s family of Laspa village is among 18 families living in the primary school building in Dharchula. Jawarhar Singh lost his house in the landslide that followed the water fury. He wants to migrate from the village as the entire village is sliding slowly.

Durgeswari Bonal, sitting silently in her hut in Jauljibi, said her family had lost everything that they owned in the village in Darma valley.

“Our fields were the only source of our livelihood and they were washed away by the flash floods," said Durgeswari Devi.

Durgeswari was rescued by a helicopter during the rescue operation. “I am sitting in this tent in the hope of getting ration and relief announced by the government," she added.

Irshad Husain had came to Jauljibi 15 years ago from Allahabad in search of a job as a barber and opened his own shop in the main market.

“Everything was perfect before June 17, when the sudden swell of Kali river washed away my house which was near the bank of river. My family of four was saved by the quick efforts of my neighbours,” said Husain. He said he has failed to get any relief and intends to return to Allahabad with an uncertain future.

Flood-hit to get free ration till Sept: CM
Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, July 28
Disaster-hit villagers of Dharchula and Munsiyari subdivisions of the district will be supplied ration free of cost till September. Later they will be given ration through the public distribution system, Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna told district-level officers via videoconferencing today.

Kumaon Commissioner Avnendra Singh Nayal, District Magistrate Neeraj Khairwal and Additional District Magistrate BL Rana attended the videoconference meant for reviewing the relief work in disaster-hit areas.

“We have informed the Chief Minister that to meet the power needs of 60 villages, over 3,059 solar lanterns have been distributed among the disaster-affected villagers. These villages used to get power supply from the Kanchoti micro hydroelectric project at Dharchula that was damaged in heavy rains last month,” said Khairwal.

The officials said all damaged bridges in the area were being replaced by temporary ones. The Kumaon Commissioner said he had given orders for employing retired revenue officials till February 2014 with an aim to increase manpower in the disaster-hit area.

Johar valley villagers seek ration via choppers
Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, July 28
Residents of disaster-hit Namik village in the Johar valley have demanded that they also be provided ration by helicopters. They have not been in a position to lift their quota ration that is being dropped at a place 28 km from their village as all routes have remained closed since June 16.

Namik is the remotest and the highest village of Pithoragarh district. “We are being provided ration at Tejam, which is 28 km from our Namik village,” said Tulsi Devi, gram pradhan of the village.

Tulsi Devi said, “Almost 118 families of Namik village are dependent on the godown of the District Supply Department at Tejam for the PDS ration supply. Even the shortest route to Tejam from their village is 16 km long. It is not possible for them to travel to such a distant area to get ration. As a result, the quota of kerosene oil for the village has not reached Namik for the past six months. Some expectant mothers have been waiting for vaccination teams that have not visited the village for the past one month,” she added.

She said their village had been without electricity for the past one month. UREDA was calling the villagers for distribution of solar lights at Birthi, which is also 28 km away from Namik village. “We have written to the district authorities to link our village with helicopter sorties which are dropping ration for the villagers. This will save their time and energy in travelling 28 km to get solar lights and ration,” said Tulsi Devi.