Even a year after the Uttarakhand disaster, which had devastated the State and made a severe dent in the State’s economy, horrific images are still haunting the minds of disaster victims.
After disaster, State was allotted with Rs 7,346 crore by the Union Government, Rs 154 crore from Prime Minister Relief Fund and another Rs 100 crore from the State Governments.
The money was not issued, it was callousness of the Government that even the distribution of their rightful compensation amount the work was not carried out in a fair manner. Since June 2013 disaster 3,890 including 889 Uttarakhand residents are missing. In which the kin of 500 people who belong to outside the State are yet to receive death certificate from the Uttarakhand Government.
Although State Government has managed to restore infrastructure leading to Char Dham especially in Kedarnath, where severe damage had reported and around 4,000 people including pilgrims lost their lives or missing since June 16 and 17, 2013, but they did not manage to restore infrastructure other than the yatra route.
To provide succor to the disaster-affected children, an NGO had organised a camp. In which they organised interactive session for them.
In which Paras, 14 years old boy, has written a song describing what he saw on that fateful day.
His village once serene and pleasing was reduced to rubble and stone. Most of the children depicted the disaster through drawings. During interacting he said, “We saw our houses were collapsing and cattle were flowing like paper boats. We carried our elders on our back and rushed for safer place.”
After witnessing the loss of their homes and livelihood, government lackadaisical approach has dealt double whammy. They alleged that state government assured that they would be given pre fabricated house but yet to get the house. Although Rudraprayag DM Dr Raghav langer outrightly rejected the allegation and said 652 out of 889 missing Uttarakhand people belong to Rudraprayag district.
In which everyone relatives were given Rs five lakh compensation till September 10, 2013.
Besides it 866 families, who lost their homes, were supposed to be given Rs five lakh relief for the building of pre fabricated huts.
In which we gave option to them either you take pre-fabricated hut made by the State or owner driven own construction so people opted second option. In this process they were suppose to disburse the money in four installments i.e Rs 1.5 lakh; Rs two lakh; Rs one lakh and Rs 50,000. In which first installment i.e Rs 1.5 lakh disbursed to each beneficiary.
The people who have lost their loved ones have also lost the will to survive. A few kilometers above Guptkashi is village Devali.
The furious Mandakini claimed the lives of 54 men from this village. Vasundhra Devi’s husband was working as priest at Kedarnath. Her two teenaged sons were with their father when the devastation took place. Although she has received Rs 15 lakh in compensation, she has not touched the money. She admitted that she has lost the will to survive.
Dr langer said, “ Total 53 bridges including 31 between Rudraprayag and Sonprayag and 22 bridges between Sonprayag and Kedarnath were washed away in Mandakini River. In which we managed to rebuild six bridges and remaining place we installed trolley to restore connectivity. Now we are upgrading the trolley into motor cable car.”
To restore the bridges we have assigned PWD and tender allotted even Rs 20.48 crore were released to the contractor. Hoping that PWD would rebuild the bridges by 2015.