Garhwal Rifles opens special helpline centres
Pauri Garhwal, July 10
Garhwal Rifles Regimental Centre, Lansdowne, at Pauri Garhwal has opened soldier disaster aid centres in disaster-hit Rudraprayag, Joshimath and Uttarkashi towns to provide instant relief to the families of Army men affected in the region.

Governor discusses situation post disaster with PM
Dehradun, July 10
Governor Aziz Qureshi met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi last evening to give him detailed information about the destruction caused by the natural calamity that hit the hill state last month.

Govt failed to handle calamity effectively: Teerath Rawat
Pauri Garhwal, July 10
President of the state unit of the BJP Teerath Singh Rawat has alleged that the Vijay Bahuguna-led state government had failed to handle the calamity effectively.

Pithoragarh, July 10
Dharchula, a border town which is a market and subdivisional headquarters of Darma and Vyans valleys, is gradually turning into a dead town after being cut off by roads for the last 25 days as the highway connecting it with the outside world has been washed away by the floods. Business activities in the town have ceased.

“Over 50,000 people of the town and adjoining villagers are suffering for the last one month as essential goods are not being supplied from the Pithoragarh and Haldwani markets as the connecting roads are damaged,” said K.S. Garbyal, a local resident of Dharchula town.

The strategically significant town of Dharchula was cut off on July 17, when incessant rains for 72 hours caused landslides and damaged portions of the Tanakpur-Tawaghat highway at several places, making it inaccessible to reach the town via motor road.

“The road has been washed away at Gothi, Kalika, Cahtiabel, before Dharchula town and at Ailagar, Tawaghat, Kanjoti and Sobla ahead of the town on the highway,” said Tapan Mohanti, a BRO officer working hard to open the road. He said the most challenging portion to be reconstructed was at Gothi, where a 200-metre stretch has been washed away by the Kali river which is now flowing over it.

BRO officers said after reconnecting Dharchula with rest of the world, the work to link portions of the road at Tawaghat will be started. “We have reconstructed vital bridges on the road. The bridges on the river at Tawaghat, Ailagar, Kanchoti and Sobla have been washed away,” said the BRO officer.

Villagers, who are reaching Dharchula on foot from the disaster-hit villages of the Darma valley, are surprised by the condition of Dharchula. “We came to Dharchula to find safety from the aloofness of Drama villages. But we find that even this town is cut ff from the mainstream,” said Krishan Singh Phirmal from Philam village of Darma valley who reached Dharchula on foot from his village 50km away.

Local businessmen, daily wage earners and street vendors are the most affected by this disconnection of the town for last 25 days as neither local customers nor tourists are coming to the town. “This is the hot season of Kailash Mansarovar and Chhota Kailash pilgrimages, besides the season of trekkers who come to view Om Parvat at Jolingkong. All these tourists would pass through Dharchula town, giving brisk business to the locals,” said Tej Singh Gunjyal, a businessman in Dharchula.

“The town also used to be the hub for Indian wholesale markets for the businessmen from Nepal across the river Kali. They are also suffering from this inaccessibility of the national highway in India. We see a deserted look not only in the markets of Dharchula, but also in Nepal,” said Gunjyal.

The district administration and BRO have decided that after making the alternative track routes available for local residents, the road and bridge construction in Dharchula will be started. “We have started transportation of small vehicles up to the Nai Basti relief camp by carving an alternative road. Alternative routes to Dharchula town will be made after the track route transportation gets going,” said Harish Dhami, local MLA from the Dharchula assembly constituency who is looking relief and rescue operations in the town.

Dehradun, July 10
Uttarakhand Disaster Management Minister and state Congress president Yashpal Arya today said the disaster management authorities and Congress workers were assessing the damage to life and property in the rain disaster in the state.

Addressing a press conference here today, Yashpal Arya desisted from giving a figure on the casualties or damage to properties in the rain disaster. He said reports of missing pilgrims were still coming from other states and it was only after the process was completed, a total figure could be reached.

Refuting the charge that the state government was slow in rescue efforts, Arya said it was never an easy task to evacuate over a lakh people within some days.

Arya said any act of complacency linked to relief works on part of any official will be dealt with strictly. He thanked Centre for assistance to the rain-battered state of Uttarakhand.

Arya said he would tour the disaster-affected areas of Garhwal from tomorrow. He would visit Sonprayag, Guptkashi and other areas.

He said that relief material was coming to Uttarakhand from all over the country and the state government was ensuring that there were no irregularities in its distribution.

Dehradun, July 10
Governor Aziz Qureshi met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi last evening to give him detailed information about the destruction caused by the natural calamity that hit the hill state last month.

Governor Aziz Qureshi meets Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Tuesday.

In his half-an-hour meeting with the Prime Minister, the Governor gave suggestions about the reconstruction and development of the disaster-affected areas according to the advice of geological experts and about rebuilding of roads by the BRO as soon as possible using the latest environment-friendly techniques.

He requested that global experts be consulted and a model be prepared to rehabilitate the affected areas. During the meeting, the Governor also presented important proposals before the Prime Minister to develop the Char Dhams.

He said the Char Dhams should be developed keeping in mind traditional knowledge and expectations of holy men and devotees. No construction should be allowed within 500 m around the shrines and afforestation must be undertaken in the area.

Qureshi said keeping in mind the geological condition and the lessons learnt from the recent calamity, the construction on the yatra routes should be carried out in a safe and scientific manner.

The Governor informed the Prime Minister about the obstacles being faced in the relief and rehabilitation efforts due to bad weather and damaged roads and bridges.

The Prime Minister and the Governor dwelt upon the relief and rehabilitation efforts and on the need for preparing a scientific plan of action for the future.

Dehradun, July 10
Several families in villages of Uttarakhand have lost the sole breadwinner in the disaster, leaving widows to fend for themselves and their families.

While the widows and their families would be receiving ex gratia, no effort has been made by the Department of Social Welfare to reach out to these women by sending a fact-finding team to ascertain the number of widows who have been affected by the tragedy.

"As such, we have not thought of a scheme specifically aimed at helping these women. They will only be covered under the widow pension scheme," said S. Raju, Principal Secretary, Department of Social Welfare.

The Department of Women and Child Development said it did not cater to women in distress and hence did not have any scheme targeting them.

In Deoli-Bramhagram panchayat comprising six villages falling in Rudraprayag district, around 57 men are reported missing. Perhaps the largest number of widows are from this area.

Going by the number of missing persons from Uttarakhand, 637 have not returned. By July 15, the government will declare the number of missing persons as dead.

Similarly, in Lambgondi village of Rudraprayag, several women whose husbands worked as priests at the Kedarnath temple perished in the floods. These women are still traumatised but no effort has been made by the government to establish contact with them. "No specific scheme has been announced by the government for the welfare of such women," said Sushila Baluni, former Chairperson, State Women's Commission.

Dehradun, July 10
Uttarakhand Director General of Police Satyavrat Bansal presided over 9th inter-state and inter-agency coordination meeting in Dehradun today.

Taking part in the deliberations, the DGP held that a large part of the police force was engaged in relief activities in Uttarakhand. He asserted that cooperation from neighbouring states was very vital to maintain law and order. He apprised that Kanwariyas this year would not be allowed to go to hill areas, and sought proper dissemination of information to the members of the community coming from other states. It was also decided to hold another meeting at Meerut in Uttar Pradesh to review the preparations for the yatra season.

The meeting at length discussed about measures to check usage of blaring loudspeakers by Kanwariyas. Ban on carrying of hockey sticks and other arms, exchange of intelligence reports linked to Left wing extremism and measures to check usage of fake currency and smuggling of narcotics were discussed at the meeting. 

Dehradun, July 10
District Magistrate BVRC Purushottam has directed all Block Development Officers (BDOs) of Dehradun district to build sports stadia in all the villages of the hill region of the district such as Tyuni, Chakrata, Klasi, Vikasnagar, Sahaspur and Raipur, which would double up as helipads also. He said the district administration was facing a lot of difficulties in sending relief supply due to roads getting blocked in

the flash floods. As per the directions given by the state government, he said the stadia should be built in such a way that helicopters, too, could land there. Hence, each stadium would have to be built in a place which did not have trees, electrical poles or wires there. The stadium

should also be built at a height as per the parametres of the helipad. He asked them to prepare the plan without any delay. The sports stadiums/helipads would be built with the funds released under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA). The DM directed the BDOs as well as officials of the Irrigation Department to contain the damage to the residential areas triggered by rivers and land erosion owing to the natural calamity by erecting wire fencing. He said these works were to be undertaken under MNREGA.

He warned the BDOs against being careless in the matter of installing wire fencing around those areas which faced land erosion due to rivers. He asked them to send him estimates and assured them that paucity of finances would not come in the way of this task.

Dehradun, July 10
A group of youngsters from Chakrata, who worked for collecting data for economic census in Dehradun, complained that they had not been paid the money fixed for the work so far. Around 300 of them were engaged in the task where Rs 6,300 was fixed to be given to each. They completed census work in two months, March and April. 

Mayor Vinod Chamoli sent them to the Chief Development Officer to resolve the matter. Subhash Singh said he had come all the way from Chakrata to do the census work to earn some money for his poor family. He said the administration seemed to have forgotten them all. Ajay Khanduri said he walked from door to door collecting data for Rs 6,300, which was a hefty amount for them. He said the officials did not pay them in time, as was promised to them. Rather, they spent from their pocket on transport each day.

Chamoli said the government departments always took some time in releasing money. They should not feel disappointed. He assured them that they would not require to come again. 

Dehradun, July 10
Labsang Sangay, Tibetan Prime Minister-in-exile, today presented a cheque of Rs 2,38,201 on behalf of Tibetan community to Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna for disaster relief. He gave the message of Tibetan spiritual guru Dalai Lama and told the Chief Minister that Tibetan community stood behind the people of Uttarakhand in this hour of crisis.

Meanwhile, Digvijay Singh of Emaar MGF company presented a cheque of Rs. 1 crore to Chief Minister Bahuguna for the Chief Minister's Relief Fund here today. ED Park of LS Cables company also presented a cheque of Rs 3.30 lakh for the disaster relief to the Chief Minister.

Relief distributed

District Magistrate BVRC Purushottum convened a meeting with all Subdivisional Magistrates (SDMs) of the district regarding distribution of relief to the disaster-hit victims' families.

The district administration distributed relief amount of Rs 1,63,98,300, while a sum of Rs 83,75,900 is yet to be distributed, which the DM directed the SDMs to do so in the next three days.

The DM was told that five persons died in the disaster in Dehradun tehsil, whereas family members in two cases had been given Rs 5 lakh each. Five died in Rishikesh. In these cases relief amount was yet to be distributed. In Vikasnagar, four people died, whereas in three cases, assistance of Rs 5 lakh each has been given. Four died

in Kalsi and assistance of Rs 20 lakh had been distributed to the family members. One died in Chakrata. There, too, the relief amount had been given. An amount of Rs 15,000 was given to a person who got injured in Kalsi in the calamity.

Dehradun, July 10
The management of Union Bank, situated within the premises of Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC), is planning to shift from the compound, thanks to the apathy of DMC officials and misconduct of sanitary workers.

Manager of the bank SK Gupta, while pointing towards the leaking roof and walls, showed his files to this correspondent which got spoilt due to the dripping.

Three fans in the single room had become non-functional due to seepage in the roof. He had no option but to keep minimum furniture there because of the leakage. The entire room was smelling of heavy moisture. He said as per an agreement signed with DMC, they could not undertake any repair work in the bank. So he had to depend on DMC for that. He had been bringing the matter to the notice of DMC officials, including Mukhya Nagar Adhikari (MNA), but they were not doing anything, he rued. He said no one wanted to work in this bank because of its bad condition.

MNA Ashok Kumar said he had given directions to cement the porous roof of the bank.

But his orders had not been implemented on the ground. While airing his grievances against sanitary workers, Gupta said the sanitary workers of DMC withdrew their entire deposits from their salary accounts through debit cards from the ATM machine without leaving the bare minimum of Rs 500.

They bring different sets of documents bearing different names, addresses etc to get loans sanctioned and createheadache for bank employees.