Haridwar MP and former Uttarakhand chief minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' has thanked the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh for facilitating Doppler radar for Uttarakhand.
"The survey for installation of this radar should be speeded up so that it can play a role in mitigating the impact of disaster in Uttarakhand," said Dr Nishank.
During debate in the lok Sabha, Nishank said that thousands of people had died in Uttarkashi, Chamoli and Rudraprayag during the 1991 earthquake. Dozens of people from 14 States had died in the Malpa incident in 1998 while thousands of people from 24 States had died in the 2013 Kedarnath disaster with thousands still missing.
Informing the House, he said that villages destroyed by disaster have not yet been resettled while stressing that the State had been demanding Doppler radar for long on the grounds that it would enable the authorities to know the possibility of a cloudburst at a particular place five hours before the expected time of incident. "Haridwar is located on the banks of the Ganga and when the rivers are in spate, dozens of villages in Haridwar and laksar are flooded. This has been causing substantial losses to sugar cane farmers for the past three years. This makes it vital for us to have Doppler radar and companies of the National Disaster Response Force so that the people of Uttarakhand can receive the required assistance in times of disaster," he said.
Reiterating the demand for green bonus to Uttarakhand, the Haridwar MP said that there is need for addressing the imbalance resulting from conservation of forests. Raising the issue of loan recovery from the farmers in the Haridwar region, he stressed on the need for a special scheme for the region to stop the farmers and youth from migrating.