Joshimath Crisis: Angry locals protest against NTPC, Malari Inn hotel will be razed first

Authorities will start demolishing hotels and homes in Joshimath, Uttarakhand, on Tuesday. This town has developed cracks as a result of landslides and subsidence. Malari Inn and Mount View hotels, which have more cracks, will be razed, according to officials.

Angry locals in Uttarakhand are protesting over National Thermal Power Corporation ( NTPC)-related constructions close to the Joshimath area.

“In the 1960s, there were just 30 shops in the town and 400 families used to live here. And town has a population of more than 25,000. Over the years, the burden on the town has grown and it has now caused danger to Joshimath’s very existence,” said locals of Joshimath.

Malari Inn will be the first to be demolished and that it will be brought down in a ‘step-wise,’ according to Manikant Mishra, a senior official with the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), who spoke to news agency ANI.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court turned down a request for an immediate hearing regarding the Joshimath land collapse occurrences and scheduled the case for hearing on January 16.

The top court said that everything which is important need not come to the apex court, adding that there are democratically elected institutions working on it.

The Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Roorkee, would oversee the demolition work, and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) will be sent to support the local administration.

Joshimath, which has a population of more than 25,000, serves as an overnight halt for tourists travelling to the shrines at Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib and other tourist destinations. As a result, there have been too many hotels and resorts built nearby, which experts believe is to blame for the town’s most severe land subsidence to date.

The attempt at evacuation comes as the government of Uttarakhand works on a strategy to rehabilitate the afflicted residents, who are suffering from fear and anxiety and facing an uncertain future.

In the meantime, a bulletin was released by the Chamoli District Disaster Management Authority regarding landslides in the Joshimath region.

The bulletin said that cracks have been noticed in a total of 678 buildings in the town and in view of security, about 81 families have been temporarily displaced from the region.

Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt reached ‘sinking’ town Joshimath in Uttarakhand on Tuesday. He held discussions with the administrative officials at the Army base regarding the situation in the town, reported ANI.

In accordance with Section 23 of the Uttarakhand Disaster Mitigation Management and Prevention Act, 2005, Ranjit Kumar Sinha, secretary for disaster management, has issued a notification in this regard. The decision was made based on the advice of a professional team that is assessing homes in Joshimath.

“As per the recommendation of the expert committee, municipal area of Joshimath in Chamoli district has been declared as disaster affected with regard to landslide and land subsidence activities,” Sinha said on Sunday.

The Uttarakhand government has declared Joshimath’s all nine municipal wards as “landslide-subsidence zone” under the disaster management act, and started evacuation of residents from these areas, officials said on Sunday.