Joshimath residents reject relocation to faraway area

On November 30 last year, the Union government approved a ₹1,658.17 crore recovery and reconstruction plan for Joshimath

Residents of Joshimath, where cracks and fissures had appeared on houses and on the ground a year ago, have rejected the Uttarakhand government’s proposal to relocate them to a village near Gauchar, around 90 km away, citing that their livelihood depended on the temple town, people familiar with the development said.

Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, a civil society group comprising residents of the temple town in Chamoli district, said the decision to reject the government’s proposal conveyed to them by Uttarakhand disaster management Secretary Dr Ranjit Sinha in a meeting on Sunday was “unanimous”.

“In a recent meeting with affected residents and stakeholders, disaster management secretary Dr Ranjit Sinha informed that the state government had identified land in Bamoth village near Gauchar for rehabilitation of the most affected people. However, people unanimously rejected the proposal,” Atul Sati, convener of the Samiti, said in a social media post on Sunday.

Residents did not want to relocate too far away from Joshimath because their livelihood depended on the temple town, which is the gateway to Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib pilgrimage sites, Sati said. “There is also a discrepancy in the identification and marking of areas in danger zones.”

Sinha didn’t respond to repeated calls for a comment.

In January last year, large cracks and fissures had appeared on buildings and on the ground in Joshimath due to largescale subsidence in the region, prompting the authorities to evacuate a large number of people to relief camps and temporary shelters.

Read Here | Land subsidence: CBRI conducts fresh inspection of Joshimath

A study conducted by a group of scientific and technical institutions on land subsidence in the Himalayan town attributed the crisis to Joshimath’s location on a slope over morainic deposits or loose sediments, population pressure, construction of multi-storey buildings and the absence of a system for proper disposal of water coming from the upper reaches.

“We have put 14 places across the town in the high-risk zone. Areas such as Marwari, Singhdhar and Manohar Bagh are among the most affected wards in Joshimath,” Ajay Chourasia, the chief scientist at Roorkee-based Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), told reporters on Tuesday.

On November 30 last year, the Union government approved a ₹1,658.17 crore recovery and reconstruction plan for Joshimath to be implemented in three years.

CBRI, which was among the institutions that studied the Joshimath crisis last year, is conducting a fresh inspection of the town to ascertain if there was any further aggravation in geological situation and implementation of recovery and reconstruction plan.

Meanwhile, the affected families have also sought the formation of a monitoring committee involving the samiti members for proper and time-bound reconstruction and rehabilitation works. They also demanded that the government “fix the rates for compensation of land of affected households”.

“We also demand the state government to set up an office in Joshimath for proper implementation of rehabilitation and reconstruction plan,” the samiti convener said.

The samiti also reminded Sinha that the residents were still waiting for action on their 11-point charter of demands handed to chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami in April last year despite assurance from the latter.

The 11-point demands put forth to the government by the samiti, included the declaration of the entire Joshimath as disaster-affected and simplification of the process for compensation to the affected people.

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