DEHRADUN: The residents of Joshimath took to the streets on Thursday to protest against the continuing land subsidence in several wards across the town.
This comes at the back of cracks continuing to appear in houses following concerns that the town was gradually sinking. Located at a height of 6,000 feet in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district, Joshimath falls in high-risk seismic 'Zone-V'.
Enraged and panicked by the sight of cracks developing through their houses, the residents led by the Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (JBSS) held a torchlight protest across the streets of Joshimath and blocked the Badrinath highway resulting in a 'chakka jam' and markets remaining shut.
The district officials said, 561 houses in different areas of the town have developed cracks, including 153 in Ravigram, 127 in Gandhinagar, 71 in Manoharbagh, 52 in Singhdhar, 50 in Parsari, 29 in Upper Bazar, 27 in Suneel, 28 in Marwadi and 24 in Lower Bazar.
The district administration continued to hold talks and urge the agitating people to end the traffic blockade. However, JBSS president Shailendra Panwar and convenor Atul Sati said the blockade would be lifted only after a written assurance over the closure of the NTPC project and the Helang-Marwari bypass and full arrangements for rehabilitation of the affected families.
The administration is engaged on a war footing to provide all possible help to the affected families due to the problem of landslides in Joshimath. Arrangements have been made for the affected families to stay in municipal and guest houses, block, Badarinath Kedarnath Temple Committee BKTC guest houses, Gurudwara, Inter College, ITI Tapovan and other safe places.
As many as 47 families from the Joshimath Nagar area have been temporarily shifted to safer places. Out of these 43 families have been shifted by the administration while five families themselves have shifted to safer places.
The district administration also issued an order to NTPC and HCC companies to construct 2000 pre-fabricated buildings as a precautionary measure to relocate the affected families. This natural calamity has engulfed almost all the wards of the city.
Chamoli District Magistrate Himanshu Khurana told TNIE, "The entire situation is being reviewed continuously for 24 hours. Additional District Magistrate Dr Abhishek Tripathi and Joint Magistrate Dr Deepak Saini are present on the spot along with the administration team. The SDRF, NDRF, and police security forces have been put on alert mode to deal with the threat of disaster."
In view of any emergency arising out of the land subsidence, the district administration has stopped construction work of projects - under the Helang bypass, the BRO and NTPC Tapovan Vishnugarh hydropower project and construction work under the municipal corporation area with immediate effect. The operation of the Joshimath-Auli ropeway has also been suspended till further orders.
Leader of Opposition Yashpal Arya said the locals were blaming "uncontrolled, short-sighted development" for the destruction of Joshimath, which has a population of around 25,000.
"On one hand, the tunnel of NTPC's Tapovan Vishnugarh project has hollowed out the ground from within, on the other hand, bypass road construction is being started and excavation at the root of Joshimath is shaking the entire city from below," he said.