More houses develop cracks

Dehradun: Every minute is important, the Uttarakhand Chief Secretary said on Monday as more houses, buildings and roads developed cracks in the sinking town of Joshimath, red crosses came up on hundreds of unsafe structures and many residents stayed on despite the imminent danger.

The number of subsidence-affected homes rose to 678 while 27 more families were evacuated to safety, a bulletin from the Disaster Management Authority in Chamoli said, adding so far 82 families have been shifted to safe locations in the town.

Chief Secretary S S Sandhu held a meeting with officials at the state secretariat to review the situation in Joshimath and asked them to speed up the evacuation exercise to ensure the safety of residents as "every minute is important".

The district administration had put red cross marks on more than 200 houses in the sinking town that are unsafe for living.

It asked their occupants to either shift to the temporary relief centres or rented accommodation for which each family will get assistance of Rs 4000 per month for the next six months from the state government. Personnel of the National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force have been deployed for the relief and rescue efforts. There are 16 places in Joshimath where temporary relief centres have been built for the affected people.

Apart from them, 19 more hotels, guest houses and school buildings have been identified for the affected people in Joshimath and 20 outside the town in Pipalkoti. Sandhu said the work on stopping toe erosion in the subsidence-hit areas should be started immediately and dilapidated houses that have developed huge cracks should be razed soon so that they do not cause further damage. Broken drinking water pipelines and sewer lines should also be repaired immediately as they might complicate things in the subsidence zone, he said.

Many families in the affected area are finding it hard to sever their emotional ties with their homes and move out. Even those who have shifted to temporary shelters keep returning to their abandoned houses in the danger zone, unable to overcome the pull of home.