After realising the plight being faced by the disaster victims in the mountainous parts of the State, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank met Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.
Nishank also tabled the detailed report focusing the disaster and demanded PM’s immediate intervention for providing ration, health, potable water, communication system, road network, shelter and other basic amenities to the disaster hit villagers of the State.
Nishank said that the chances of stranded pilgrims in the mountainous parts of the state could not be ruled out. After expressing his concern that villagers, who are living in the Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag, Chamoli and Pithoragarh districts are worst affected, Nishank also demanded from the Dr Singh to draft the concrete plans for the rehabilitation of the villagers.
He also highlighted that around 1,500 villages, 2,000kms road, 150 bridges were damaged in the flood ravaged that was witnessed in the Rudraprayag, Uttarkashi, and Chamoli district, last month. Sanctioning of additional funds to BRO could be proved extremely beneficial for repairing and constructing the damaged bridges in the disaster affected districts of the State.
Nishank also stressed to relax norms for sanctioning the funds for the disaster hit victims and to permanently appoint one battalion of NDRF in the state. He demanded from him to sanction funds to install Doppler Radar for early and accurate forecasting focusing the weather conditions in the State.
According to him, formation of Himalayan authority could be proved extremely beneficial for the Himalayan States. Nishank highlighted that the state government should immediately issue the White Paper on the disaster so that exact death toll and missing figures could be known to the Government.
Nishank stressed that the introduction of the 108-Heli service should be immediately start by the government for curbing the death toll in the disaster hit areas of the State. He also demanded from the Union and State Government to issue Government orders to quash the loans of farmers and students as the villagers had completely lost their livelihood in the mountainous parts of the State.
Nishank expressed concern that those villagers who are living in the mountainous parts of the state are among the worst sufferers and they need immediate intervention from the Government to improve their social-economical status in the coming days.
The delegation comprised of Tehri MP Mala Rajyalakshmi, former cabinet minister Khajan Das, Kedarnath former MlA Asha Nautiyal and Purola MlA Malchand.