The disaster affected people living in different villages near the Alaknanda River in Chamoli district have demanded that the company operating the Vishnuprayag hydro electric project be made to pay for damages, compensate the loss of income sustained by the locals and that a criminal case be lodged against the company.

In a letter written to the Minister of Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natarajan, Minister of Water Resources Harish Rawat, Power Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, the affected people have blamed the company for the sudden flood on June 16 which caused major damage in the region.

The Vishnuprayag dam disaster affected people’s group along with Matu Jansangathan has stated that they are now waiting for the Government to act after which they will “go ahead by using all our fundamental rights”.

Vimal Bhai and DS Panwar of Matu Jansangathan alleged that the June flood in Alaknanda which caused major damage in lambagad, Vinayak Chatti, Pandukeshwar, Govindghat and Pinoli Ghat villages was a result of delay in opening sluice gates of the Vishnuprayag HEP built and operated by Jaiprakash Power Ventures ltd.

Vimal Bhai said, “We discussed the sequence of events with the locals and those who had escaped from the flood affected areas to ascertain the cause of destruction which was unprecedented. We found that the flow of water from this project increased on June 16night before stopping and then resuming again after 2:30 AM, this time with a heavy flow of water towards Govindghat which caused the destruction. We believe that initially when the flood started, the company staff opened the dam gates to empty the reservoir before closing them again.”

“But when the flood water continued and started to fill up the reservoir again, they failed to open the gates this time as there was a heavy inflow of sediments and boulders which damaged the gate system, resulting in formation of a lake about 1.5 km in length. Soon the lake damaged the project and destroyed everything else which came in the way of the rushing water. This makes it clear that the destruction which occurred in our area was due to the company’s negligence so our complete loss must be repaid by the company,” he stressed.

The affected persons have demanded that the insurance amount of the dam should be blocked without delay and complete compensation for the damage in lambagad, Pandukeshwar, Pinoli, Govindghat and Vinayak Chatti should be paid by the company.

The safety work from the dam to Pinoli should be undertaken by the Government according to the guidelines and villagers should be given quality supervision task for which they should be paid a monthly honorarium.

The people have also demanded that a criminal case be lodged against the company, no new dam should be constructed upstream of these villages and that a high-level inspection and survey committee should visit the affected regions and record their pleadings in its report.