Shishir Prashant: Ravaged by nature, yet to be redeemed by government

Since the 2013 floods, not much has changed; redevelopment is slow, preparedness is lacking. A scam has made matters worse

In June, exactly two years after Uttarakhand was ravaged by floods, people in the Kedarnath area found the remains of a human foot. The opposition said the state government had not done much to retrieve the bodies of flood victims from under 50-60 feet of rubble that still surrounds the Kedarnath temple, situated 3,854 metres above sea level.

Heavy rains have again wreaked havoc here. Pilgrimage to the shrine of Shiva has been disrupted for the past few days. The Sonprayag bridge on river Mandakini, a vital link in Rudraprayag district where Kedarnath area is located, was washed away. Nearly a dozen other bridges and roads in the Garhwal region were damaged. Poor material is said to have been used in their construction.
 

More than 5,000 people died in the 2013 floods, the brunt of which was borne by the Chardham areas (Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri). The government said in the Vidhan Sabha that 4,247 people had been killed or reported missing. About 150,000 people were rescued by helicopters. The devastation was maximum in the Kedarnath area following the bursting of the Chorabari lake in the icy peaks.

The state government is yet to take concrete measures to rebuild infrastructure. Whatever repair had been done, was washed away again with Mandakini and Alaknanda in spate after the heavy rains this time.

To top it all, a scam related to disaster relief funds in the state was unearthed through the Right to Information Act. Documents show that government officials supervising relief efforts stayed in luxury hotels and spent lavishly on food. There were other financial irregularities, too. For example, 1,800 raincoats were bought from the same shop in three days and diesel was bought for two-wheelers.

Chief minister Harish Rawat has ordered the chief secretary to probe the matter. However, he himself remains unfazed. He said the Chardham yatra had not been suspended and that people were still eager to visit these places.

"When pilgrims come for the Chardham yatra, it is the duty of the government to offer them protection. This yatra is very safe and secure," he added.

A Cabinet committee on Uttarakhand under the former United Progressive Alliance government had approved Rs 7,342 crore for reconstruction and rehabilitation works - building roads; ensuring drinking water and irrigation; providing housing and enabling tourism - of which the. state government has spent Rs 2,000 crore on compensation and various works. Rawat said his government was yet to receive the remaining aid from the Centre, although much of these funds come from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The ADB alone granted a loan of $200 million for reconstruction and upgrade of infrastructure facilities, which include building 50 new helipads.

The chief minister had sought a package of Rs 4,250 crore from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This apart, rehabilitation of more than 350 villages vulnerable to floods and landslides is pending. Not much headway has been made in the redevelopment of Kedarpuri town too.

Despite the fact that the state has been facing nature's fury repeatedly, the government has not made much progress on risk management; slope stabilisation and river morphology studies; or strengthening of emergency response and early warning systems.

"Lack of funds and government apathy have made matters worse," said a top government official.

Roads in the state are damaged every year by floods and landslides. With heavy rains frequently causing much destruction in the Himalayas, the way out, say experts, is to construct all-weather roads.

In a plan submitted to the government last year, experts in the state planning commission proposed that all-weather roads measuring 99.6 km in length through 14 tunnels would reduce distance and save time of travellers. Nothing more was heard after this.