Paingadh: Like subsidence-hit Joshimath, villagers of Paingadh village in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand have additionally been pressured to depart their homes due to landslides and cracks showing in their lodging. The hapless villagers are taking shelter in aid camps, tin sheds and even faculties.
More than 40 households in the village, which is among the many oldest settlements on the financial institution of the Pindar River close to Tharali on the Karnaparayag-Almora National Highway, have change into homeless and live like refugees. There are over 90 households in the village dwelling there for generations.
The drawback of landslides started in the village in 2013 with the Kedarnath catastrophe, however the matter worsened in October 2021 when cracks started to seem in fields above the village.
“The cracks were small initially and in a year’s time, they widened into holes,” Gopal Dutt, a villager, mentioned.
On October 21 final 12 months, a landslide occurred at across the similar place the place cracks had appeared and big boulders fell on homes, killing 4 individuals.
The rubble of this landslide has affected virtually half of the village and individuals who used to dwell in the zone have had to depart their houses and take shelter elsewhere, he mentioned.
Some of the affected households have taken shelter in the homes of kin, whereas others have shifted to a college constructing in the village. .
The solely authorities major college of the village has been was a aid camp, forcing authorities to maintain the lessons in the junior highschool constructing about one kilometer away.
Children aged between 5-11 years have to stroll to their college and likewise cross a stream on the way in which.
“There is no proposal yet to resume classes in the primary school building. Something definitive about it can be said only after the district administration makes a rehabilitation policy for the village,” Education Officer of Tharali block, Adarsh Kumar informed PTI.
Meanwhile, Chamoli District Disaster Management Officer N Okay Joshi mentioned a tin shed is being constructed in a safe location the place the affected individuals of the village will likely be shifted. However, a villager, Surendra Lal, alleged the shed is being constructed close to a pine forest the place there isn’t a water or electrical energy provide. One can’t go on foot to the place which may additionally pose a hazard to lives throughout summer time when pine leaves simply catch fireplace, Lal mentioned.
Dutt mentioned the federal government was requested to give readymade or prefabricated homes to the affected, however no progress has been made.
The affected households got Rs 5,000 as catastrophe aid by the federal government 4 months in the past.
“Geological scientists also conducted a survey of the village after the landslide, but no one knows what came out of it,” Surendra Lal mentioned.
Jagmohan Singh Gadiya, who retired from the Army and lives in the landslide-affected zone, mentioned, “I now regret my pledge not to migrate from my village”.
District Disaster Management officer Joshi mentioned house owners of the broken homes have been given compensation as per norms. Relocation will likely be executed in accordance with the rehabilitation coverage and protected places are being recognized, he mentioned.
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