The Supreme court refused to entertain a plea seeking its intervention to declare Joshimath subsidence as natural disaster. A bench of Chief Justice Of India D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices P.S. Narasimha and J.B. Pardiwala permitted the petitioner to approach the Uttarakhand High Court with the plea.
“High court can suitably redress the grievances including rehabilitation of the affected people,” the Supreme Court said. The plea before the top court seeks to stop the development of the Tapovan project and the protection of religious sites. Several families were evacuated from Joshimath after cracks appeared in their houses in the wake of the subsidence. The petition sought to provide immediate financial assistance and compensation to the people of Uttarakhand, who have lost their houses and land to subsidence.
Disaster Management Secretary Ranjit Kumar Sinha inspected the landslide-affected areas in Uttarakhand’s Joshimath and said that there has been an uptick in the number of cracks, but no new areas have faced damages.