Himachal didn’t get relief for rain disaster last year: Rajesh Dharmani

Hamirpur, August 5

Himchal kept waiting for the relief from the Centre for last year’s rain disaster but it did not get any despite submitting damage report, said Rajesh Dharmani, Technical Education Minister, while talking to mediapesons after inaugurating a tree plantation drive at Balli Chuwari village in Bilaspur district today.

He said that the state was again facing a disaster-like situation but the Central Government had not responded to the situation yet. Last year, over 400 persons were killed and about 22,000 people were rendered homeless but the Central Government did not bother to mitigate their plight, Dharmani added. This time the Central Government had made provisions in the Budget and the state government was hopeful of getting assistance.

Dharmani said that Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was monitoring the situation on the 24x7 basis and providing every possible help to disaster-affected people. He added that over 1.8 lakh saplings would be planted in Bilaspur district during the season. Of these, about 1.4 lakh species would be of big trees and the remaining (40,000 saplings) would be 12 species of bamboo.

He said environment pollution and climate change had emerged major challenges for the mankind. Unscientific felling of tress had added to the problem, he added.

Dharmani urged the people of the district to participate in the sapling plantation programmes to be organised by the Forest Department and contribute to the preservation of the ecology of the state. — OC