Dehradun: Uttarakhand government on Saturday decided to identify land to relocate villages swept away by the June flashfloods and launch women-centric vocational schemes designed to help those who lost their husbands or breadwinners in the tragedy.
Announcing this at a press conference here, Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said women, who lost their husbands or breadwinners in the tragedy, are being identified so that they could benefit from the rehabilitation schemes to be launched for them.
With the process of evacuating people stranded in high altitudes being over, the priority of the government now is to put life back on track in the flood ravaged areas, he said.
Land banks (areas where land for relocation purposes is available) will soon be identified and the process of rehabilitating people rendered homeless by the calamity will begin at the earliest, Bahuguna said.
In view of the foodgrain shortage, a problem which often accompanies tragedies of this scale, the state government has also decided to set up grain banks at about 30 places across the state where people can procure foodgrains in times of crisis, he said.
The state government is also contemplating pension to women who became widows in the calamity and those who were maimed, he said.
A proposal to this effect is being prepared which might get clearance at the next meeting of the state cabinet, Bahuguna said after a meeting with AICC general secretary incharge of party affairs in Uttarakhand Ambika Soni, Union Water Resources Minister Harish Rawat and senior ministerial colleagues to review relief and rehabilitation efforts underway in affected areas of the state.
Expressing satisfaction at the pace of relief and
rehabilitation measures in the state, Soni said the state government deserved a pat on the back for completing clean-up operations at Kedarnath and deciding to resume prayers at the shrine on September 11.
"Considering the massive scale of devastation at Kedarnath, things are moving pretty fast towards normalcy there and the state government deserves to be praised for that," she said.
The chief minister said 70 per cent of the task of paying compensation to the kin of those who went missing after the calamity has been accomplished and the rest will also be getting the compensations soon.
Asked about the number of people missing in the calamity, the chief minister said it stands where it was.
"None of those declared missing has surfaced and for all practical purposes as of now they may be presumed dead.
The process of paying compensation to their kin is on," he said replying to a question.
Harish Rawat said the Mansarovar yatra has been suspended for unavoidable reasons but considering the sentiments of the people of Uttarakhand who also depend for their livelihood on the annual pilgrimage, he will take up the issue of its early resumption with the Centre.
PTI
