PM Modi assures Uttarakhand CM Centre\'s help on Joshimath

New Delhi: Principal secretary to the Prime Minister P.K. Mishra on Sunday held a high-level review meeting on the situation in Joshimath, where cracks have developed in the buildings and the entire area seems to be sinking. Mass evacuations have started from Joshimath, the gateway to some renowned pilgrimage sites like Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to take stock of the situation and assured him of all possible help from the Centre to save Joshimath. Mr Dhami said that the PM is personally monitoring the situation in Joshimath and asked about the steps being taken to rehabilitate the affected families due to land subsidence.

During the PMO meeting on Joshimath, Mr Mishra was apprised that the Central agencies and experts are assisting the state government to prepare short, medium and long-term plans. One team of the National Disaster Relief Force and four teams of the state disaster relief force have already reached Joshimath.

The PMO meeting was attended by the Cabinet secretary, senior officials of the Central government, and members of the National Disaster Management Authority. District officials of Joshimath and senior officers of Uttarakhand also attended the meeting through video conference. The chief secretary of Uttarakhand briefed the top PMO officials from Joshimath.

It was decided that the secretary of border management and members of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) will visit Uttarakhand on Monday to assess the Joshimath situation. A team of experts from the NDMA, National Institute of Disaster Management, Geological Survey of India, IIT Roorkee, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, National Institute of Hydrology and Central Building Research Institute will also study the situations and give recommendations. The National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad and the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun, have been asked to conduct a study of Joshimath through satellite imagery and submit a detailed report with photographs.

The Uttarakhand CM had visited Joshimath on Saturday to assess the situation on the ground, a day after he directed the immediate evacuation of around 600 affected families.

Joshimath has been declared a landslide-subsidence zone and over 60 families living in damaged houses in the sinking town have been evacuated to temporary relief centres, a senior official in Uttarakhand said on Sunday.

Considering the extent of the damage, at least 90 more families will have to be evacuated as soon as possible and the local administration has set up relief centres at five locations in the Himalayan town, Garhwal commissioner Sushil Kumar said.

Meanwhile, Chamoli district magistrate Himanshu Khurana went from door to door in the affected area to assess the extent of damage and appealed to people living in houses that have developed cracks to move to the relief centres.

"There are a total of 4,500 buildings in Joshimath and 610 of them have developed huge cracks, making them unfit for habitation," said Mr Kumar.

A survey is underway and the number of affected buildings could go up, he added. Mr Kumar further said the affected area, including houses that developed cracks earlier and the ones damaged recently, forms a big arch that could be spread over 1.5 km.

Temporary relief centres have been set up at five safe places within Joshimath. Some more buildings, including a few hotels, a gurdwara and two inter- colleges, have been acquired to serve as makeshift shelters that can accommodate around 1,500 people, he said.

"Land subsidence has been going on slowly in Joshimath for quite some time, but it has increased over the past week with huge cracks appearing in houses, fields and roads. "The situation worsened apparently after a water channel beneath the town erupted last week," the Garhwal commissioner said.

Mr Kumar said long-term measures being explored to deal with the situation range from reconstruction to retrofitting.

The state government will pay `4,000 per month for up to six months to those who want to move to rented accommodations, he said, asking people not to risk their lives by choosing to continue living in the damaged houses.

The CM has told the state officials not to get entangled in long procedural complexities and take direct clearance from him for work related to drainage treatment and sewage systems in Joshimath.

The Geological Survey of India has also been asked to examine the suitability of Koti Farm, the Herb Institute and the Horticulture Department's land in Joshimath and in Pipalkoti's Semaldala area for rehabilitation purposes.