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Several rain-hit roads still inaccessible in state
Helicopters not available to take relief to Pithoragarh
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Packets airlifted to Dharchula, Munsiyari
Kailash yatra pilgrims proceed to Gunji camp as medical aid is better there
Arya tells Cong men to help in relief operations
UKD favours quick relief measures for rain-hit
Fish, meat sellers barred from selling for 3 days
Warring groups unite over DMC decision on USWA poll
UPCL to replace 1.96 lakh meters by next year
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Several rain-hit roads still inaccessible in state
Dehradun, June 19 In Uttarkashi, the Rishikesh-Yamnotri National Highway continues to remain blocked at Hanuman Chatti and Chatanga,and the Rishikesh-Gangotri National Highway continues to remain blocked at Chinyali, Chala, Sukhitop, Sainj, Nalupani and Dharasu. In Rudraprayag district, the Rishikesh-Kedarnath National Highway is closed to traffic due to the deposition of debris at Gaurikund, Khakra and Sirobagad. The Kedarnath-Gaurikund route has been completely washed away by the rainwater. In Chamoli, the Karanprayag-Garisain route is blocked at Adibadri, Mandoli and Lambagad. The Govind Ghat-Joshimath route,and the Chamoli-Birhi route has also damaged. In Tehri,a bridge at Dhanolti has been washed away. In Pithoragarh district, the Pithorgarh-Champawat route has been opened,but the Ghat-Pithoragarh-Dharchula-Tawaghat route continue to remain blocked. In all, 30 roads continue to remain blocked. In Almora district,the Ramnagar-Chukhutiya route is inaccessible, the Almora-Pithoragarh route and the Manila-Raniketh route are still inaccessible. In Dehradun a 4 km stretch on Sahastradhara-Kayara road is closed. Dehradun-Chakrata National Highway is also closed to traffic due to the deposition of debris. |
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Kailash yatra pilgrims proceed to Gunji camp as medical aid is better there
Pithoragarh, June 19 The second batch of the pilgrimage is still trapped at the Almora camp of the Kumaon Mandal Vikash Nigam, the nodal agency for the yatra. “The two pilgrims from Gujarat -- Retesh and Kritika Pandya -- stayed at the Bundi camp as they complained of chest pain,” said Kedar Singh Rawat, an ITBP officer at the Gunji camp. The ITBP officers said proceeding to the Gunji camp did not mean that the pilgrimage would be continue. The pilgrims had moved to Gunji as medical and other facilities were better there than at other camps of the route. “A meeting is under process at the External Affairs Ministry in New Delhi to decide the fate of this year’s Kailash Mansarovar yatra. A decision will be taken after that meeting,” said the ITBP commandant. Citing the recent report of the survey team sent by the ITBP to study the condition of the yatra route beyond Bundi, the ITBP officer said the track
route had been damaged and was risky. “We have conveyed our findings to the Government of India. The rest will depend
on their decision,” said the ITBP officer. According to the survey taken by ITBP and civil administration, the 17-km long route along the Kali river on the way had become highly risky for the pilgrims as the river has swollen, covering the track. |
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Helicopters not available to take relief to Pithoragarh
Pithoragarh, June19 “We have over 1,000 relief packets, including 5 kg of rice, the same quantity of
dal, one salt packet, Maggi nodles packets, matchboxes and 50 litres of kerosene for a relief camp. The material has been dumped at the Naini Saini airstrip. It is waiting to be lifted as soon as helicopters are made available to the district administration,” said Tejbal Singh, District Supply Officer of
Pithoragarh. The in charge of the store at the airstrip said the dole was being kept ready as helicopters were likely to reach the district soon. “We are expecting helicopters from Kedar valley to reach the district for picking up the material as the road connectivity with the rain-affected villagers and tourists has been completely cut off,” said the DSO. Repairs begin on Kali bank wall
The district administration has started urgent repair work in some places where the rivers are expected to turn more fatal in the coming rains. “We have started repair work on the damaged wall erected at the bank of Kali near the Matkhola bend to save Dharchula town from future havoc. The wall will also save the town from flash floods in future,” said Pramod Kumar, SDM of
Dharchula. Villagers await relief
The residents of Baluakot town in Dharchula subdivision have complained that though several houses collapsed into the Kali and the people of the villages were living in tents erected at heights due to the havoc created by the Kali waters three days ago, no relief material had reached the villagers. “Our houses collapsed into the river waves just like the houses of Uttarkashi collapsed. But we could not get national publicity because our area does not fall on the Chardham yatra route,” said Santosh
Dhariyal, a resident of Baluakot, on the Pithoragarh-Dharchula highway. Meanwhile, the BJP spokesperson today alleged that while the villagers in
Lilam, Lwa, Martoli and Burfu in Johar valley and New Suva, Kanchoti and Sobla in Darma valley and at Baram and Jauljibi were suffering from hunger in the last three days, administration oficers along with Congress leaders were on merry-making trips in hired helicopters. “Administrative officers along with local Congress MLAs are traveling in a 4-seated helicopter and claiming to disburse relief. They are befooling the people and media in the district,” alleged the BJP leader.
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Packets airlifted to Dharchula, Munsiyari
Pithoragarh, June 19 ''We have distributed relief material to over 2,500 villagers, including 7 American tourists, stranded at several places, including
Dharchula, Jauljibi, Sobla, Khela in Dharchula subdivision and Rilgari and Bugdyar on Munsiyari to Milam track route in Johar valley,'' said Pithoragarh District Magistrate Neeraj
Khairwal. According to district disaster managment office, over 200 houses have been totally damaged due to the rains in two subdivisions of Dharchula and Munsiyari where nearly 2500 people, including 7 American tourists and 12 Indian tourists, are stranded in Johar valley. ''The stranded tourists and villagers will be evacuated by Army helicopters from today,'' said the District Magistrate. According to disaster managment officer, 38 shops and 12 houses, situated near the bank of river Kali, have been shifted to safe places as the river crosses the danger level at the bridge over it across India and Nepal. The evacuated villagers at Jauljibi have complained that relief has not reached them for the third day today despite the administration's claim to have distributed the material. ''The 1500 villagers , who were evacuated from near the banks of the Kali at Jauljibi village two days ago, have been dependent totally on the relief material being provided by the local people. The relief material from the district administration is yet to reach these victims,'' said Leela
Bangyal, a social worker at Jauljibi village. According to the District Magistrate, Khela village is the worst hit in these rains as almost the entire village has gone homeless as the houses have been wiped out by the rain fury. |
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Monetary aid pours in
Dehradun, June 19 The first help came from the Congress-ruled state of Rajasthan. The Minister of Disaster Management and Relief, Rajasthan, Brijendra Singh
Ola, today gave a cheque for Rs 20 crore to the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Dr S
Sandhu. Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav also announced financial aid of Rs 25 crore to the Himalayan state. Offering all possible help to
Uttarakhand, Yadav exhorted the people to come forward and help in the relief work. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced an assistance of Rs 5 crore to the state. The Haryana government also gave a Rs 10-crore assistance to the calamity-hit
Uttarakhand. “Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announced Rs 10 crore for Uttarakhand to help the state as a rescue and relief operation has been launched there following floods triggered by heavy rain,” a state government spokesman said in Chandigarh. Gujarat Chief Minister Narender Modi also spoke with the Chief Minister and offered an assistant of Rs 2 crore towards calamity relief. |
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Arya tells Cong men to help in relief operations
Dehradun, June 19 In a letter to all district presidents and senior leaders of frontal organisations, Arya wrote that the natural disaster could not be tackled by the government machinery alone and it was the responsibility of the Congress workers to pitch in to help the government. He appealed to the Congress workers to collect relief material like clothes, warm clothes, medicine and food material and distribute it in the disaster-affected areas. Meanwhile, at a meeting of the Sewa Dal of the state Congress presided over by state convener Ram Vilas Rawat, it was decided to set up a control room in Dehradun and start sending volunteers and relief supplies to the affected areas immediately. |
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UKD favours quick relief measures for rain-hit
Dehradun, June 19 Submitting a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna to ADM Harak Singh Rawat, Bhatt blamed the Congress and the BJP for doing a little in tackling damage during the monsoon season every year. He said, "Residential colonies and commercial buildings have come up near drains. Even the banks of rivers have not been spared. When rainwater does not get any outlet, it washes away buildings built near drains or canals." He said both the BJP and the Congress had failed to check the menace of encroachment. The torrential rains had battered several areas across the state but the state machinery had failed to act expeditiously, he alleged. "The state government has opened only one disaster management wing, which has failed to complete the task entrusted to it. If the government is serious about improving response mechanism with regard to natural disaster, which affect people and infrastructure adversely every year, it should create a separate department of disaster management and recruit staff for it. |
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Fish, meat sellers barred from selling for 3 days
Dehradun, June 19 Fearing pressure mounted by the members of Kalka Mandir committee and residents of the area to shift these shops, the shopkeepers have not protested against the order released by the district administration. Babban, meat seller, said: “The meat stock kept in our shops will rot in three days. Had the administration informed about the closure of shops in advance, we would have dealt with the situation accordingly.” Another shopkeeper Nadeem said he would not be able to provide meat to hotels that had already placed their orders to him. This breach of commitment would spoil his business relations in future. Altaf said the district administration should have provided them some sort of compensation as the loss of business over three days would affect their financial position. It is to be noted that fish and meat sellers had been directed to shift to Kabadi Bazaar by the district administration but even that place got badly affected during the rains. The embankment around the river on the site got washed away. Not only this, the shopkeepers also faced problems from the followers of a sect who held their ceremonies in the open ground, situated in front of Kabadi Bazaar. Additional District Magistrate Harak Singh Rawat said the district administration would provide another suitable location in the next 15 days to the shopkeepers of fish market to relocate their establishments. A delegation of fish sellers led by state Congress vice-president Suryakant Dhasmana met Mukhya Nagar Adhikari (MNA) Ashok Kumar today. Dhasmana emphasised that the fish and meat sellers should not be harassed and must be relocated at a place suitable for them. Kumar assured that soon an appropriate location would be finalised for the fish and meat sellers. |
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Warring groups unite over DMC decision on USWA poll
Dehradun, June 19 Both the warring groups of Chander Mohan Kala as well as Karamveer Valmiki united to oppose DMC’s decision to bar supervisors from fighting the elections for Uttaranchal Sanitary Workers' Association (USWA). In their fight, the city unit of Shiv Sena also supported them. Karamveer Valmiki demanded the entire process of election to be cancelled and a new date for the election to be announced so that all those supervisors who withdrew their nominations in the wake of Mayor’s order could file their nominations once again. He said in all the elections held so far, supervisors had been contesting the elections.During their protest, neither Mayor nor any other senior official was present in the premises. Mayor, who had gone to supervise the anti-encroachment drive over drains in Nehru Colony, attended to the residents who came from various localities complaining about damage to their property in the downpour. People from ward number 52, Patel Nagar and 44 Kargi came along with their councillors. They complained of damage to their belongings.The boundary walls of some houses were broken in the calamity. Those from Kargi also complained of many kutcha houses washing away. The Mayor assured them that the DMC along with the district administration would provide urgent relief to all the complainants. |
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UPCL to replace 1.96 lakh meters by next year
Dehradun, June 19 The UPCL has also released a metering plan under which 27,250 defective meters will be replaced each month. The decision comes in the wake of relentless efforts of the president of the Jan Sangharsh Morcha Raghunath Singh Negi and hundreds of consumers, who had been complaining of inflated electrical bills for long. Addressing a press conference here today, Raghunath Negi said: "Eight years ago, the meters of inferior quality were purchased at a cost of Rs 600 crore by the UPCL. Despite several complaints, consumers were still getting inflated electricity bills and no official listened to their grievances. However, when they brought the matter to the notice of State Information Commissioner Anil Sharma, he took the issue seriously. On his directions, the UPCL prepared an action plan to replace all defective meters that comes to be 1.96 lakh." Negi said he also met Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission (UERC) officials and came to know that the commission had already passed directions to the UPCL regarding the replacement of faulty meters within 15 days of any complaint and the correction of bills within three months. However, neither the meters were changed nor bills were corrected by the UPCL. Among the regions where consumers are complaining of defective meters, Rudrapur tops the list with 14,894 meters, followed by Sitarganj 12,327 meters, Pithroagarh 10,379 meters, Haridwar (rural) 9,354 meters, Ranikhet 8,967 meters and Gopeshwar 8,959 meters. Negi also showed a letter, wherein chief engineer (commercial), UPCL, SK Tamta had written to the Secretary, State Information Commission, that "There are 16 lakh UPCL consumers. Of this, 1.96 lakh were found to be having defective meters, which is 12.25 per cent of the total. Though all linemen had been directed to replace the meters, due to a shortage of linesmen and because of hill topography, this task could not be undertaken efficiently." |
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In the wake of torrrential rains in the state, several roads and national highways are still blocked.
Several relief packets are still lying in district administration stores even on the third day of the disaster-hit remote villages as helicopters for lifting the stock are not yet available.
Army and civilian helicopters today took off from Naini Saini airstrip and distributed relief material to the rain-hit victims stranded at over a dozen places in the Dharchula and Munsiyari areas.
''We have distributed relief material to over 2,500 villagers, including 7 American tourists, stranded at several places, including
Dharchula, Jauljibi, Sobla, Khela in Dharchula subdivision and Rilgari and Bugdyar on Munsiyari to Milam track route in Johar
valley.''
A delegation of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (Panwar), led by city president Ashok and general secretary Shanti Bhatt, staged a demonstration in front of the District Magistrate's office here today demanding quick relief measures for the natural disaster-hit victims in the state.
