Taking stock of the recent cloudburst disasters and damages by heavy rain, the State Government has put the death toll at 31 and assessed the damages to roads and bridges at Rs 412 crore.
Presided over by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, the State-level disaster management meeting on Tuesday assessed the damages to private and public property by torrential rain. Besides the human lives lost, it was disclosed that 633 cattle had perished.
“In total, 336 roads had to be closed for traffic due to rain damages. As many as 187 roads had been opened and debris removal work on the remaining roads is underway,” said a Government spokesman. The Chief Minister has directed for restoring the bridge on national highway 88 over Kunah rivulet.
“Bailey bridge material stands dispatched; bridges on Seer Khad at Jahu and Baghi Khad Bridge on Prashar road would also be restored on priority,” stated the Chief Minister.
Discussing the bottle-neck on Shimla-Kinnaur National Highway, the Chief Minister said that a permanent solution to the landslide zone near Urni would be found.
He said that the practice of sprinkler and Khul irrigation should be discouraged in the fragile zones of the district Kinnaur as this was being seen as a major reason for the landslips
“Blasting undertaken by Jaypee to construct tunnels had further damaged the fragile hills of the Kinnaur wherever hydel projects were being set up,” said Virbhadra Singh. As many as 1,953 rural water supply schemes were either fully or partially damaged.
While the damages due to rains was heavy last year also, but of the Rs 250 crore sanctioned by the Central Government for natural calamity assistance, till date only Rs 95 crore had been released.
Other than the Chief Minister revenue Minister Kaul Singh Thakur, chief secretary P Mittra, Additional Chief Secretaries VC Pharma and Vineet Chaudhary, DGP Police Sanjay Kumar were present at the high level meeting.