Joshimath: Buildings Marked ‘Unsafe’ As Locals Halt Demolitions; SC to Hear Plea on Jan 16 | Key Points

Locals on Tuesday protested over compensation before demolishing two precariously standing hotels in the ‘sinking’ town of Joshimath, while more families were evacuated and the Center assured the Uttarakhand government of necessary assistance.

The Supreme Court declined urgent hearing on a plea seeking the apex court’s intervention to declare the crisis in Joshimath a national calamity.

Here are the latest updates on Joshimath land subsidence

• A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha dismissed the urgent hearing of Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati’s plea seeking court’s intervention to declare the crisis in Joshimath as a national calamity and listed it for hearing on January 16. did. Us. There are democratically elected bodies to see to it. We will list it on January 16.”
• Minister of State for Defense Ajay Bhatt reached Joshimath and discussed the situation in the town with the administrative officials at the army base. He also visited the flood affected areas and met the affected people.
• MoS Raksha Bhatt said that the demolition exercise has been done in the public interest to secure the lives of the people. He said, ‘People have built houses with their hard earned money, but now they have to leave. Our priority is to keep everyone safe. The Prime Minister is constantly monitoring the situation. Officers have been deployed and the Army has been alerted. Cattle shelter will also be set up,” he said.
• So far, 131 families have been shifted to temporary relief centers and 37 others have been moved to safer places, while the number of damaged houses in the city has risen to 723, said the Disaster Management Authority’s bulletin.
• 86 houses in the area are marked as vulnerable. The district administration put Red Cross marks on houses unsafe for living in the sinking city. A team led by Dr. DP Kanungo, Chief Scientist, CBRI, conducted a survey and said, “Due to landslides, cracks are coming in the ground, which has greatly affected the foundation of the buildings. A seven-storey hotel building has a weak foundation. has been damaged and the building cannot be repaired, so we are demolishing it.”
• Residents bid a tearful farewell to their homes as they were evacuated from structures marked ‘unsafe’ due to land subsidence. “This is my home. I was married at the age of 19. My mother is 80 years old and I have an elder brother. We have built this house by working hard and earning. We lived here for 60 years but now it is all coming to an end.
• Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said, ‘NDRF and SDRF teams are trying to find out the cause of the sinking crisis. Our main objective is to ensure the safety of the people and Prime Minister Modi is also concerned about it.”
• Chamoli District Magistrate Himanshu Khurana said the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) would decide which buildings would be demolished due to the landslide in the ‘sinking’ town of Joshimath. “The demolition is to be carried out by the PWD with the assistance of NDRF and SDRF,” he added. “Under the Disaster Management Act, we have issued notices to the owners of the hotels that are set to be demolished,” he said. He also said that the authorities are shifting people to safer areas like Dharamsala and guest houses. “People have their belongings and they cannot be shifted overnight. Hence, delay in the process,” he explained.
• As hotels Malari Inn and Mount View were reported to be leaning dangerously towards each other, posing a threat to human settlements around them, the state government on Monday started repairing the unstable two buildings. Orders were given to demolish the structures.
• As the State Disaster Relief Force (SDRF) personnel along with the JCB and workers reached the site, the locals, including the hotel owner, staged a protest over the unfair compensation. Thakur Singh, owner of Malari Inn, lying on the road in front of the hotel in protest said, “I am not opposing the demolition of the hotel building, but I am demanding proper compensation from the government.”
• Seeking a one-time solution plan, Singh was among hotel owners who expressed their frustration over the lack of clarity on compensation and demolition. A resident who runs a small business in the town and was part of the protests said, “Decisions are being taken unilaterally without taking the local people into confidence.”
• Lalmani Semwal, owner of Mount View, said the demolition was “like killing a child who has been brought up by years of toil in front of its parents.” “If the government has decided, what can we say. But we should be offered a one-time settlement scheme in compensation on the lines of Badrinath,” Semwal said.
• A representative of the Chief Development Officer (CDO) and the District Magistrate reached the protest site and discussed the matter with the local people. President of Joshimath Municipal Corporation, Shailendra Pawar said, “Further action will be taken after the meeting tomorrow morning at 9.30 am.”
• Earth Sciences Minister Jitendra Singh announced that the Center will set up a micro-seismic observation system at Joshimath. Meanwhile officials said a seismic microzonation study for the region would generate risk resilient parameters for safe housing and infrastructure.
• The National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) on Tuesday reviewed the situation in Joshimath and stressed that immediate priority should be to ensure complete and safe evacuation of all residents in the affected area. Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba emphasized that priority should also be given to the safe demolition of sensitive structures, an official statement said.
• The Chief Secretary apprised the Committee that the operation of Joshimath-Auli Ropeway has been stopped and the construction work in and around Joshimath Municipal area has been stopped till further orders. Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said that a high-level team of Home Ministry officials led by Secretary Border Management is currently in Joshimath to assess the situation. The meeting was attended by top officials of various departments, members of NDMA, Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee and Scientific Secretary to Chairman, ISRO, among others.
• Badrinath MLA Rajendra Bhandari addressed people sitting on a dharna at the tehsil office for nearly a week against state-owned power producer NTPC. He said that people should unite and oppose NTPC’s Tapovan-Vishnugarh project, alleging that it has contributed to further weakening of Joshimath’s already brittle foundation as it is situated on landslide debris. The strike is being organized by Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti.

(with inputs from agencies)

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