CM meets Modi, seeks Rs 500 crore immediate disaster relief for state

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 26

Chief Minister Harish Rawat met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi today and sought an immediate relief of Rs 500 crore for the damage caused by recent heavy rainfall, cloudbursts and landslides in the state.

The Chief Minister told the Prime Minister that according to preliminary estimates, Uttarakhand had already suffered a loss of nearly Rs 1,000 crore during the rainy season and further damage might increase the losses up to Rs 1,500 crore by September.

“Recompensing the losses is beyond state’s capability because of its limited resources. Thus, the cooperation and assistance of the Union Government is a must to reconstruct the damaged infrastructure and projects and normalise the situation in sensitive regions,” he said.

He informed the Prime Minister that more than 370 villages located at landslide-prone zones were vulnerable to natural calamity and an amount of Rs 10,000 crore was required for the relocation of these villages to safer zones and to mitigate the possibility of future disasters.

“Being a small hill state with limited revenue potential, Uttarakhand needs resources from the Central Government in this humanitarian mission. Land will be required to relocate these vulnerable villages from the areas declared unsafe. The state has 70 per cent forest cover so sufficient government land is not available for the relocation of these villages,” he added.

The Chief Minister requested the Prime Minister to provide forestland for the relocation of these sensitive villages and transfer the land of these villages to the Forest Department.

“As rehabilitating these villages is a technical and complicated task, the Central Government should constitute a committee for the purpose. The incorporating officials of the Disaster Management, Union Finance Ministry and departments concerned of the state government will examine the entire process of relocation of vulnerable villages,” he said.

Rawat said the incidents of heavy rainfall, cloudbursts and landslides had increased in Uttarakhand due to changes in the weather pattern in the recent years.

Besides loss of human lives, the rainfall has damaged infrastructure and property in Tehri Garhwal, Pithoragarh, Uttarkashi and Chamoli districts.

The Chief Minister said the state government had saved many precious lives through proactive initiatives with the active cooperation of the NDRF. Heavy rainfall had affected a large area extensively, casuing huge damage to roads, electricity, drinking water supply, agriculture, forest and other places of importance. The process was going on to assess the loss of crops and farming land.

He said the state government with its limited resources was consistently working on relief and reconstruction works so immediate help of Rs 500 crore was required from the Central Government to speed up the reconstruction process favourably.

The Chief Minister invited the Prime Minister to the Char Dham Yatra. According to a state government press note, the Prime Minister assured Rawat that he would visit the Char Dham regions after the monsoon in September or October with regard to strengthening the state highways.