New Delhi: Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami held a high-level meeting with top officials on Friday in the wake of cracks and seepage issue in Joshimath town of Chamoli.
In the meeting, CM Dhami has instructed the officials concerned that a big temporary rehabilitation centre should be set up at a safe place in Joshimath immediately. He also instructed that danger zone should be evacuated at the earliest.
Uttarakhand authorities have also been asked to alert the disaster department and activate the disaster control room in Joshimath without delay.
“I will hold a high-level meeting with top officials in Dehradun this evening regarding landslides in Joshimath and cracks in houses. I will visit Joshimath tomorrow and take stock of the situation. A team from BJP has also been sent there,” CM Dhami had earlier said.
Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami holds a high-level meeting on the issue of Joshimath land subsidence pic.twitter.com/pkQMZPltjq
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) January 6, 2023
Here are the key developments:
- CM Dhami instructed that temporary accommodation should be set up in safer zones at the earliest and also asked the officials to plan the evacuation sector and zonal-wise.
- Apart from the officials of the Disaster, Irrigation, and Home Departments, Commissioner Garhwal Mandal and District Magistrate, Chamoli also took part in the meeting.
- According to reports, cracks were seen in a total of 561 buildings. To accommodate the relocated people, 70 rooms, seven halls, and an auditorium have been identified.
- “Operation of Joshimath-Auli ropeway stopped till further orders. Joshimath administration has ordered NTPC and HCC to make available 4000 pre-fabricated houses. 43 families from Joshimath town area temporarily shifted to safer places. SDRF, NDRF, and security forces on alert,” the Chief Minister’s Office stated, as per ANI.
- As per news agency PTI, so far, 561 houses in different areas of the town have developed cracks, including 153 in Ravigram, 127 in Gandhinagar, 71 in Manoharbagh, 52 in Singhdhar, 50 in Parsari, 29 in Upper Bazar, 27 in Suneel, 28 in Marwadi and 24 in Lower Bazar.
- The Uttarakhand government formed a team of experts to find out the reason behind the land subsidence in Joshimath, as a result of which buildings and roads have sustained significant damage.
- Located at an altitude of 6,000 feet in Chamoli district, the town of Joshimath, that falls on the route to Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib, falls in high-risk seismic ‘Zone-V’.
- Earlier, on Wednesday night, locals took to streets with torches to stage protest against houses in the town developing cracks.
- Joshimath observed a bandh on Thursday as the residents believe that the “NTPC projects which have led to its gradual sinking”. People took to the streets shouting slogans against an “idle administration”. A chakka jam was staged with the business establishments remaining closed, Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti convenor Atul Sati said, as per PTI.
- The district administration has also suspended the construction of Helang bypass by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), work of Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project and other construction works.
