To divert the course of Gaula River and to carry out safety and repair works along the riverbanks in Haldwani, the district administration Nainital has decided to release `5 lakh.Notably, Gaula river in Haldwani, fed by rain, is not just changing its course, swallowing human habitation and spawning soil erosion but is damaging the river banks during the monsoon. District magistrate NainItal, Deepak Rawat asked the officials to remove encroachments from near Gaula river banks after he had visited the place. He asked them to issue notices to the families of the encroachers to make them vacate the river banks. He asked the officials to use force if necessary to have the banks vacated of encroachment.
Mention worthy, apart from a motor bridge connecting Gaula bypass with Haldwni city, the rails linking Kathgodam with from other parts of the country also run along Gaula. Keeping this in view, there is a need of proper embankment to deal with any eventuality during the rainy season ahead. However, the district administration, Nainital, seems to have been caught napping as Gaula has been swelling since the rain started. Pre-monsoon works like de-silting of drains, removal of encroachments and shifting of families from flood -prone areas should have begun much earlier, well before the monsoon arrived, an observer said.