Rawat criticises Uttarakhand govt for not visiting rain-hit villages in Pithoragarh

Former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat on Wednesday criticised the state government for not visiting the rain-hit villages here and said they reminded him of the 2013 Kedarnath tragedy.

Former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat on Wednesday criticised the state government for not visiting the rain-hit villages here and said they reminded him of the 2013 Kedarnath tragedy. A series of cloudbursts in the Bangapani sub-division of the district last month had demolished several houses in different villages, killing 18 people and leaving three others missing.

Drawing a comparison with the Kedarnath tragedy in 2013, Rawat, who took a tour of the villages here, criticised the state government for not visiting the affected areas. "After visiting the disaster-hit villages, I could not sleep all night as the people have lost all their fertile fields, houses and personal belongings and have nothing left with them," he told reporters on his return from the rain-ravaged areas.  "They reminded me of the Kedarnath disaster of 2013. But the state government's presence in the affected areas is nil," Rawat said.

"The state government does not have a quick response mechanism to deal with natural disasters," he said.  The Congress leader demanded immediate relocation of Dhapa village, saying no reconstruction was possible in the devastated terrain. Residents of Dhapa have temporarily been shifted to a relief camp at Baram.

Lumti, Mori, Tanga and Gwalgaon villages should also be shifted due to their vulnerability to natural disasters, he said. The former chief minister asked the state government to get the Centre's approval on a proposal sent during his tenure in 2015 to grant land in the Terai region to relocate 300 disaster-hit villages of the area.

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