|
|
|
|
|
Lakshar-Khanpur belt is still cut off
Govt failed to learn lessons from report on 2012 Uttarkashi floods
|
|
|
CM has failed to publicly acknowledge Modi’s contribution, says TS Rawat
BJP: No relief given in Rudraprayag
NGOs chalk out plan for better coordination in relief work
Uttarakhand
the challenge ahead
Responsible for Ganga, NGBRA mum on Uttarakhand floods
Forest officials accused of felling trees
Dera Sacha Sauda sends relief material to Guptkashi
|
|
Lakshar-Khanpur belt is still cut off
Haridwar, July 11 Most of the villages in the belt wear a deserted look as its residents have shifted to makeshift camps set up by the district administration. Provincial Armed Constabulary and jal police personnel have been deployed in the flood-hit areas. Maharajpur Khurd, Kalasiya, Dumanpuri, Kudi Habibpur, Balabwali and Giddhawali are still submerged. Meanwhile, taking stock of the situation in the areas, District Magistrate Nidhi Pandey has directed officials to distribute more relief aid. The aid is being distributed at Gangdaspur, Maharajpur Kalan, Maharajpur Khurd, Habibpur Kudu, Majra Panditpuri, Rayasi Mazra, Nandpur, Raghunathpur-Balawali Majra, Dummanpuri, Kalasiya, Jogawala, Majra, Dabki, Dhallawala, Chandrapuri Bangar, Chandrapuri Khadar, Sherpur Bela, Kabulpur Mazra, Bhikampur Jeetpur, Khanpur, Haridwar railway station, roadways bus station, Junior High School, Khanpur, Primary School, Khanpur, Dr Hari Ram Arya Inter College, Haridwar, Bhimapur flood post and Panchayat Ghar of Bhogpur. Students of Jamdagni Public School, Lakshar, have also collected Rs 12,500 for the Chief Minister's Relief Fund. They also observed a two-minute silence for the victims of the disaster. Several social organisations are also coming forward to provide relief aid in the Lakshar-Khanpur plain belts of Haridwar district. The Akhil Bharatiya Gayatri Parivar, Shantikunj, has also extended support to flood-affected people in the lower reaches of Haridwar. Two relief aid teams have been sent to Lakshar and Dehradun areas, where it will be providing ration, medical and other assistance to the victims. |
|||
|
Govt failed to learn lessons from report on 2012 Uttarkashi floods
Dehradun, July 11 The report was submitted to it on June 7 this year, 10 days before the disaster struck the state yet again. On June 6, a committee, led by Secretary, Department of Disaster Management and Rehabilitation, Bhaskaranand Joshi, Garhwal Commissioner Suverdhan and experts from the Department of Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre had visited Uttarkashi and found that not a single recommendation had been implemented by the district authorities after the August 2012 Uttarkashi disaster. On its return, the panel submitted a report to the government about which the government and officials continue to remain tight-lipped. Today, if the people of Uttarkashi are facing troubled times, it is due to the "failure" of the government to learn lessons from the disaster after disaster. In its report, the committee observed that despite recommendations that a temporary bridge built on the Asi Ganga river in the Kafnaul area of Uttarkashi, which is restricting the flow of water, should be replaced by a Bailey bridge, no action was taken. The report also forewarned that the bridge could fall anytime and lead to the Sangam chatti area being swept away. The committee found that no ban was imposed on Hotel Great Ganga that was damaged in the 2012 floods and had encroached upon the river by building a retaining wall on the Bhagirithi, which could fall any time. The committee also noted that an amount of Rs 46 crore sanctioned to the Border Road Organisation for the construction of an alternative motor route comprising small bridges in 2004-05 remained unutilised in 2013 and not a single bridge was constructed. It also mentioned that a wall to provide protection to the Tambakhani tunnel from the Bhagirithi river flowing in its direction was not built. Similarly, Rs 9.50 crore sanctioned for strengthening the tunnel was not spent. The committee said the bridges that were damaged in the 2012 floods in the Gangori- Sangamchatti area had not been rebuilt. |
|||
|
CM has failed to publicly acknowledge Modi’s contribution, says TS Rawat
Dehradun, July 11 “Though the government has readily accepted the aid extended by the Gujarat government, it does not want to publicly acknowledge the contribution made by CM Narender Modi and his government,” said Rawat. He said the Gujarat government had sent 29,512 kits for the state, that has been appreciated by the people. “As of now the Gujarat government has sent an aid of Rs 12.5 crore for the rain devastated people of the state,” he said. Rawat said that after a decision by the BJP Parliamentary Board on July 16, a prayer meeting would be held in memory of all those who lost their lives in the rain-induced disaster on June 16 and June 17. “We will also collect Rs 50 crore as disaster relief for the people of the state,” he said. Further he said that after undertaking a study , the BJP, too, would contribute towards reconstruction of Uttarakhand by adopting villages for development so that people could be involved in self-employment. Rawat welcomed the Prime Minister’s decision to constitute a Central committee to oversee the rebuilding and reconstruction activity in Uttarakhand. “We will watch it carefully and any reports of diversion of funds would be reported to the government,” he said. He also urged the government to maintain a proper data base on missing persons for the convenience of the kin of the affected persons who have been running from pillar to post. |
|||
|
NGOs chalk out plan for better coordination in relief work
Dehradun, July 11 Eminent environmentalist Chandi Prasad Bhatt kick-started the deliberations and said, “Uttarakhand has a history of disasters and thus a balance between development and conservation is very much needed”. He added it was very important to understand the laws of the nature or else it would retaliate. CASA Director Dr Sushant Agarwal stressed on making both short term and long term plans for carrying out relief activities. He said concentrated efforts were needed for proper conduct of rehabilitation work. Puran Barthwal from the Lok Vigyan Sanstha said with the destruction of several bridges and roads, connectivity to a large number of villages had been lost. He added many villages were today totally cut off and people had nothing to eat. He sought immediate distribution of relief in such affected villages. Suresh Bhai from the Himalayan Paryavaran Shiksha Sansthan referred to the prevailing conditions in Uttarkashi district. He said the requirements of the affected people must be taken into consideration while distributing relief. State Coordinator of CASA Suresh Satpathy said in the first phase of relief distribution, 19 villages in Uttarkashi, 20 in Rudraprayag and 31 villages in Chamoli would be taken up. CASA programme head Jayant Kumar and head of the emergency cell Nirmal Sethi also participated in the deliberations. |
|||
|
Uttarakhand
the challenge ahead
Dehradun, July 11 Born and brought up in the lap of the Himalayas, Chandi Prasad Bhatt has been witness to environmental challenges in the Garhwal hills of Uttarakhand since his childhood. He has seen many disasters and has been involved in a number of environment conservation initiatives for the Himalayan region. Talking to The Tribune, Bhatt said tragedies in the form of natural disasters are not new to the Uttarakhand region. Even in recent times, the 1991 Uttarakhand earthquake, the 1998 Malpa and Ukhimath landslides, 1999 Chamoli earthquake followed by several other incidents of cloudburst and landslide and now the most recent Kedarnath catastrophe have jolted Uttarakhand. He said it was most important to come up with an early warning system to at least prevent human casualties in such natural disasters. Institutions of eminence dealing with geology, meteorology, soil science, remote sensing and others need to together come up with an early warning mechanism to avoid human deaths. He said Uttarakhand was in dire need of such mechanism to stop the recurrence of a Kedarnath-like tragedy in the future. Chandi Prasad Bhatt also called for the identification of sensitive zones, taking into consideratoin the past incidents of landslides, flash floods and cloudbursts. Satellite imageries could be used to identify sensitive zones. Disaster mitigation measures could be taken effectively only if the sensitive areas are identified. Referring to rampant construction on the banks of various rivers in Uttarakhand, Bhatt said it was a major cause for the rise in casualty figures as seen in case of the Kedarnath catastrophe. He called for the gathering of data linked to water rise of a particular river in the past 100 years and the highest water level of that particular river must be taken into account while allowing constructions on its banks. Traditionally, pilgrims used to halt at chattis that were built away from the rivers, but now constructions have come to the very banks, which was a matter of urgent concern and the main cause of death and destruction. Significantly, Bhatt has been for long seeking a multidisciplinary body for carrying out studies of the Himalayan glaciers. He strongly believes that for a region like the Himalayas and Uttarakhand, in particular, a thorough study of glaciers by a multidisciplinary body is a must. Some years ago, he had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi for setting up of a glaciology centre in Uttarakhand. “All aspects of glaciers and other factors linked to them must be looked into, or the Himalayan 'tsunami' could recur,” he warned. He referred to the Union Planning Commission decision of 1982 that had constituted a task force headed by Dr MS Swaminathan for the constitution of the Eco Development Commission under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister. The concept of this commission was to ensure environment-centric development. However, the commission never saw the light of the day. Bhatt has been expressing concern over receding glaciers, leading to the drying up of rivers. Glacial recession could have a direct adverse impact on the environment because without forests, the perennial rivers might become seasonal and render useless the irrigation schemes and power projects based on these rivers. Many of the snow glaciers in the Himalayas have receded considerably between 1962 and 2002 and now natural disasters have become more common in our mountains. Recalling his earlier days at Gopeshwar in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, Bhatt points out that only some decades back, the forests of Uttarakhand were untouched by humans, but development works changed all this, leading to environmental disturbances in the fragile Himalayas. He said the fast eroding forest cover has led to frequent landslides which can be amply gauged from the fact that a staggering 900 hill roads in the state got closed due to landsides last year. Paradoxically, the roads of Gopeshwar and Ukhimath proved to be an exception due to the presence of a dense tree cover which prevented the occurrence of landslides. He called for regulating the number of visitors to shrines like Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri. “One cannot stop the pilgrims from visiting shrines, but their numbers should be regulated as their activities are also exerting an impact on the environment in ecologically sensitive areas,” he said, adding that at least picnickers be curbed. On conservation programmes, Chandi Prasad Bhatt stresses on people-centric environment conservation programmes. He said most of the environment conservation programmes that take shape in the country were purely from the environment point of view, while the inhabitants, who depend on forests heavily, got little importance in such programmes. He said lack of participation of the people in such environment conservation progammes puts an adverse impact on the success of such programmes. He asserts that any conservation programme that does not include people cannot be successful in the Himalayas, where the lives of man and nature are interwoven. Referring to the Kedarnath catastrophe, the veteran environmentalist argued that in 1991 when an earthquake took place in Garhwal, causing much destruction in Uttarakhand, a loud bang was also heard at Kedarnath and he had then written letters to the Central and state governments for a thorough study behind the phenomenon as he had feared cracks in glaciers above Kedarnath and sought immediate preventive measures.
|
|||
|
Responsible for Ganga, NGBRA mum on Uttarakhand floods
New Delhi, July 11 The Uttarakhand disaster, environmentalists say, is the outcome of the fury of the rivers flowing through it, and devastated by ill-planned hydel projects, roads and tourism infrastructure. The NGRBA, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is a financing, planning, implementing, monitoring and coordinating authority for the Ganga. Its mission is to safeguard the drainage basin which feeds water into the river and protects it from pollution or overuse. Effects of the cataclysmic floods in the upper reaches of Mandakini and Alaknanda -- major tributaries of the Ganga -- are well documented by now. The NGBRA has cabinet minister and chief minister of Uttarakhand, UP, Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand as members. It has met only thrice since its conception on February 20, 2009. Its last meeting was held on April 17, 2012. Magsaysay award winner Rajinder Singh, also called India's waterman, is an expert member of the high-profile committee. He too concedes that since the Himalayas are a part of the Ganga basin, the responsibility of the body should now be to formulate rules so that a similar tragedy can be avoided in future. "The use of dynamite is not permitted in the Himalayas because these are considered protected areas. But to my knowledge, thousands of tonnes of dynamite were ferried to build dams in the Himalayas. Regions that were tinkered the most suffered the maximum damage. The soil dug out to make way for the hydel projects was piled on both sides. When the flash floods occurred, all the loose earth was carried with force, burying under it precious human life,” he says. He offers a four-point solution to avoid a repeat. First, the PM should convene a meeting of the NGBRA and declare the Himalayas and the Ganga basin a protected area, at least till the time a sustainable rehabilitation plan is ready for the affected areas, he says. Number two, the state government should start respecting the dignity of the mountains by mass plantation of trees and putting a stop to any type of mining activity. Three, the village panchayats and municipal corporations should ensure that no construction takes place in the vicinity of small rivulets and streams that feed the main rivers. Last, the civil society should start respecting the freedom of the rivers and ensure that the land is not used for any other purpose, he adds. |
|||
|
Tributes to be paid to flash flood victims at Har-ki-Pauri
Haridwar, July 11 Titled Maha Shraddhanjali Shanti Path and Tarpan, the programme will be jointly organised on July 16-17 by Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee and Ganga Sabha, the institution which maintains the affairs of Har-ki-Pauri. As per media spokesperson of the Badrinath-Kedarnath shrine committee Harish Gaud, the committee has decided to pray for the peace of the souls who died in the natural calamity in the state. In Shantikunj a yajna havan is being organised these days to pray for the people affected in the natural fury in the state. Led by Shantikunj chief Shail Didi, women are participating in the yajna in large numbers. Dev Sanskriti University and Shantikunj activists are already providing relief to the affected people. |
|||
|
Power projects triggered natural disaster: Patkar
Dehradun, July 11 She said the state government was committing a grave mistake by trying to involve these banks in the rebuilding and reconstruction activity. “It is shameful that the Uttarakhand government has invited the very agencies that are responsible for wanton destruction of the environment. These power projects have confused people and are being promoted as the only source of safe energy without trying other safe sources for harnessing energy,” she said while speaking to mediapersons. Patkar said today Tehri Dam may be touted as the saviour but there was no guarantee that it would maintain its capacity in the event of a catastrophe. The social activist, who spearheaded anti-dam agitations, including the Narmada Bachao Andolan, said muck and debris from the construction sites of the dams were not being properly disposed of. “Instead of proper disposing of muck it is being dumped in rivers and forests,” she added. Commenting on the slow response to the calamity by the Uttarakhand leadership, she said a mass leader, who could fulfil the expectations of the people, was needed. “The development agenda promoted by the government is lopsided and does not take into account the aspirations of the mountainous communities. It has forced a development model on the hapless people, who have no rights over their natural resources,” she said. Patkar favoured sustainable activities in Uttarakhand and said the government was wrong in publicising pilgrimage as mega tourism because the mountain regions had limited capacity to accommodate people. “How long would you milk mountains and snowfall for business interests? One day everything would just vanish,”
she warned. Patkar had visited the flood affected areas of Uttarakhand recently. |
|||
|
Forest officials accused of felling trees
Dehradun, July 11 Sidhu had purchased a piece of land on Old Mussoorie Road in Dehradun which the Forest Department claimed to be forestland. The matter subsequently went to court. Sidhu alleged in his complaint that forest officials Dheeraj Pandey, Shri Prasad Saklani, Ved Prakash, Satish Gupta and Veer Chandran had felled trees in the reserve forest area. However, the forest officials refused to react to the charge saying the matter was sub judice.
|
|||
|
Dera Sacha Sauda sends relief material to Guptkashi
Dehradun, July 11 Dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh flagged off the vehicles carrying the relief material at Rishikesh. He asked his followers to generously donate for the disaster affected people of Uttarakhand. A contingent of 200 able-bodied men is headed to Guptkashi for the distribution of the relief material. A team of doctors is also accompanying the relief team. The relief material comprised of edible items like sugar, tea, salt and oil. Torches and utensils were also sent. Dera Sacha Sauda members pledged to support Uttarakhand in this hour of crisis.
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Classified | E-mail | |
Dehradun, July 11
Dehradun, July 11
Receding glaciers, leading to the drying up of rivers, is a matter of concern. Glacial recession could have a direct adverse impact on the environment because without forests, the perennial rivers might become seasonal and render useless the irrigation schemes and power projects based on them. Many of the snow glaciers in the Himalayas have receded considerably between 1962 and 2002 and now natural disasters have become more common in our
mountains.