Dehradun, Oct 10: With landslides from Varunavat mountain continuing unabated in Uttarkashi, Chief Minister of Uttaranchal, N D Tiwari, today said the government was trying to shift nearly one-third population of the town to safer areas. "We are trying to evacuate nearly one-third of the population of Uttarkashi in view of the landslides," Tiwari told reporters here.
He said the district administration had been asked to search land for providing alternative accommodation to the affected people who were currently being sheltered in schools and other areas.
Several geologists from prominent institutes have surveyed the Uttarkashi town and were of the view that any efforts to curb the landslides cannot be done till the stones and boulders stopped falling from the mountain. "The telephone lines have completely collapsed in the town," SDM Uttarkashi, Mahendra Prasad, said. The total loss of property due to landslides has been estimated at Rs 20 crores, he said. Fifty-two buildings situated at the foothills of the mountain have been destroyed so far due to the continuing landslides which began on the night of September 23, snapping road and telecommunication links in Uttarkashi -- which has a population of 25,000.
Uttaranchal Congress chief Harish Rawat and state Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Surya Kant Dhasmana toured uttarkashi and called for compensation to the people affected by the natural disaster. Bureau Report