Hotel owners supported by locals stopped the plan of the district administration of Chamoli to demolish two highly damaged and precariously placed hotel buildings in Joshimath city on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, more families were evacuated from the danger zone as the number of affected houses rose to 700.
The members of the hotel association of Joshimath staged a protest and demanded that the administration should first undertake a proper valuation of the properties and give in writing about the compensation it would provide. The locals are demanding compensation on the lines of the Badrinath master plan.
“I came to know about it (demolition) through the newspapers this morning. There was no prior notice. If the Government demarcated my hotel as unsafe it should have first come up with a one-time settlement plan before deciding to demolish it,” said Thakur Singh, owner of Malari Inn.
Mount View owner Lalmani Semwal expressed similar sentiments. “It is like slaying a child one has reared through years of hard work in front of its parents,” Semwal said.
“We put all our resources into building this hotel. We paid regular taxes to the Government. It said nothing then and now all of a sudden it comes up with a drastic decision like this. Isn’t it a violation of human rights?
“If the Government has decided, what can we say. But we should be offered a one-time settlement plan in compensation on the lines of Badrinath,” Semwal said.
Officials had on Monday said the State Government is working on a relief package for the people of the disaster-hit town, which will soon be sent to the Centre.
The chairman of the Joshimath Nagar Palika, Shailendra Panwar, assured that the issue of compensation would be discussed with the senior officers on Wednesday and assured that no demolition would be undertaken till a solution is reached.
Chamoli District Magistrate Himanshu Khurana had issued orders to demolish Hotel Mount view and Malari Inn on Monday under the Disaster Management Act. The teams of State Disaster Response Force and administration were on the spot to start the demolition on Tuesday when the protests erupted.
Meanwhile, the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) under the chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Tuesday evening decided in Delhi that priority may be accorded to demolition of vulnerable structures in a safe manner.
The demolition of the buildings would be done under the monitoring of the experts of Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) Roorkee.
The experts of the CBRI Roorkee would use non blast technique to bring down the buildings of the two hotels. These hotels have developed huge cracks due to the land subsidence and their buildings are leaning over one another.
A six-member team of CBRI assessed the ground situation and prepared its plan to demolish the structures. It is learnt that the CBRI sent the experts who were involved in the demolition of Twin towers in NOIDA last year. One of the experts of the CBRI said the plan is to slowly release load on the main structure.
“We will first remove the tanks, windows, doors and the non load bearing walls. After that we will demolish the main structure in the direction of the natural slope of the ground,’’ he said.
Meanwhile the Minister of State (MoS) for Defence Ajay Bhatt arrived at Joshimath on the day. He visited the army camp, Sunil ward, JP colony, Narsingh temple and Gandhiagar areas and met the affected families.
Bhatt said both the Union and State Governments stood with the affected families of Joshimath and every possible help is being extended to them. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is himself monitoring the situation while Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami is taking care of all the arrangements. Bhatt said the safety of the affected people is the top most priority of the Government.
He said some buildings in the Army camp have been damaged due to land subsidence and they have been cordoned off in view of the safety. Bhatt said it is really painful that people have to leave their houses but our first priority is to save the lives of people.
Joshimath has been declared a land subsidence-hit area after huge cracks developed in houses and other structures, roads and ground.
The holy town is the gateway to famous pilgrimage sites like Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib and there has been a demand from some quarters, including the Opposition Congress, to declare the crisis a national disaster.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday listed for hearing on January 16 a plea seeking the court’s intervention to declare the crisis in Joshimath a national disaster.
Refusing an urgent hearing, the court said there are “democratically elected institutions” to deal with the situation and all important matters should not come to it.
The plea by Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati of Joshimath was mentioned before Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha.