The Hindu : New Delhi News : Gangotri highway blocked

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 08, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Gangotri highway blocked

By Our Staff Correspondent

DEHRA DUN, JUNE 7 .The Gangotri National Highway has been blocked and debris from the Varunavat hill in Uttarkashi city has started coming down again in various areas including the Masjid Mohulla near the Collectorate after rains lashed the region over the past two days.

The police have diverted traffic via Tiloth and Joshiyada till normalcy returns. This has happened even after the State Government made tall claims of treating the fragile Varunavat hill over the past six months. Mud- filled gunny bags placed along the slopes to prevent landslides could be seen coming down with the rainwater and debris. The trenches made to check the rain- water and debris from entering the localities have also failed.

It may be recalled that nearly half of Uttarkashi city was destroyed by massive rockfalls from the hill last September and the local residents and businessmen shifted to safer areas.

The people living above the Bhatwadi road are in a state of panic as the debris on top of the Varunavat hill threatens to fall on their houses, said Vinod Raturi a villager who has come to Dehra Dun to urge the Government to save the lives and property of those living there.

The delays in making the area secure or shifting all those who might be affected before the monsoon sets in, speaks volumes of the high tech Disaster Management Centre of the Government.

" They (officers and ministers) are busy travelling abroad learning the tricks of disaster management that has no relevance in Uttaranchal or talking to each other over video phones while little or no work is done on the ground despite heavy financial allocations", said Manish Thapliyal and several others of the Tehri campus of HNB Garhwal University.

They wanted the Chief Minister to take up the Varunavat issue on a priority so that the people of Uttarkashi could live without fear.

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