The construction of Tehri dam has brought worries for the villagers, residing around the lake as due to the submergence of the traditional ghats they are being forced to look elsewhere to perform the cremation and last rites of their loved ones.
They spend per force Rs10,000 or more to have final rites done in far-off towns like at Rishikesh or Haridwar. However, the administration is apathetic to their predicament despite being pressed to do something to help them out of their plight. With nothing happening, the villagers have threatened stir to force the administration to sit up and address their problem in earnest.
The files pertaining to construction of around 23 ghats at places such as Chinyalisaur, Tuliyana, Pitara, Jalku, Kadan, Syalgi, Jakhni Dhar, Bhanso, Dharmghat, Zero Bridge, Khandu, Kunjeshwar Mahadev, Tiwad Gaon, Pilkhi, Deval Mulani have been gathering dust.
The two electric crematoriums in New Tehri that were constructed to cater to the population that had lost its traditional right of cremation grounds due to the formation of the lake are also in shambles, leading to anger among the villagers here.
With the formation of the Tehri lake, the traditional cremation grounds or the ghats were submerged by the reservoir waters. Realising things, the Tehri hydro development authorities decided to construct around 23 ghats on both banks of Bhilangana and Bhagirathi rivers in 2009.
The district administration repeatedly directed the Tehri hydro authorities to finish the work at the earliest, but nothing has been done so far.
Due to the absence of the cremation grounds, the villagers in the area keep on spending a lot. “Our patience is running thin. We have no other option but to resort to a vigorous and prolonged stir if the authority chooses to remain steeped in somnolence on this matter,” one of the angry villagers said. the disaster victims.
The State Government is going to take certain steps under its disaster management norms review plan like an increase in the compensatory amount that is given to the kin of the deceased from Rs3 lakh to Rs5 lakh, as the officials concerned said.
Besides, it is also going to do registration of domestic animals so that compensation could be granted to those farmers who lose their cattle in the natural disaster, further said the officials concerned.
Similarly, given Uttarakhand's mountainous character, the Government is also going to take certain other measures to ensure fast dispatch of relief to the needy in the aftermath of a natural calamity, if necessary, even by relaxing the disaster management rules. But the delay in the release of the funds, as has been in the case of Pithoragarh, would not serve any purpose.