Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, May, 01
A delegation of DSS led by its President Sh. G.S Charak (Former Minister) , comprising of Col. Karan singh, Sh. G.A Khwaja and Dr.V.S Sharma and expressed their serious concern and anguish over the latest incidences of land subsidence in Pernote village of Ramban district. They have expressed shock and grief over the extensive damage to the life, land, houses, power transmission lines and other resources and peoples’ property, though there are reports of quick response from the administration this time in assessment of damages due to the land subsidence and efforts to facilitate the speedy release of compensation to affected families under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) norms. They regretted that playing with a fragile environment in the area has led to such a pass.
In their strong appeal to the union territory government headed by the hon’ble Lt. Governor Shri Manoj Sinha, DSS have condemned the indifferent attitude of concerned authorities to their repeated warnings against unscientific widening of Jammu -Srinagar National Highway between Chanderkote and Ramban, that is resulting in unabated landslides, sinking of land mass and damage to forests, houses, commercial establishments and even the human life. They said that the DSS has repeatedly asked the UT Government and even the Ministry of Roads and Highways to take urgent and immediate measures for conducting scientific studies and environment friendly treatment of the highways, railway lines, tunnels and surroundings in this fragile hilly region, but it appears that the larger public interest is being ignored at the cost of biotic and the environmental sustainability.
President of the Sabha, Shri Charak stated that DSS had appealed a few months ago to Constitute an Expert Committee for NH 44 to visit Ramban – Udhampur districts at an earliest to review the extensive damage being caused to houses and agricultural lands of hundreds of residents of villages adjoining the highways because of ad-hoc execution of works under National Highway Widening Project. This was considered essential to Avert Joshimath like Disaster in Udhampur -Ramban districts and it is unfortunate that the apprehension has come true, they added.
. G.S Charak said that he had personally visited the areas and found that accelerated and unabated landslides and sinking agricultural and forest lands are causing irreparable damage to hundreds of houses, shops, commercial establishments and temples in villages of Dalwas, Dharmond, Nashri, Kunfer, Peerah, Chanderkote, Karole, Neera, Seri etc. Similar situation was reported from surrounding areas also, but little rescue and relief measures are reported. This man-made disaster is similar to the recent one in Joshimath in Uttrakhand and responsible people of Chanderkote -Ramban area have complained of execution of Project works, not by the officially engaged company, but by the unqualified contractors to whom the job has been outsourced by it.
Huge debris (mulba) excavated with the use of heavy machinery and explosives for ruthless cutting of earth along steep mountain slopes during the road widening project was reported thrown straightaway into River Chenab givingan openinvitation to serious floods, loosening of soils and land subsidence due to blockade of the flow of waters in River Chenab and in the catchments of Baglihar Dam.
A large number of houses and land owners, displaced or adversely affected by unscientific and unfeasible road and rail alignments, made in the past, because of inclusion and exclusion of villages out of political and other extraneous considerations, need proper compensation, but this aspect has also been reportedly overlooked.
The grim situation in Ramban -Udhampur districts along the highway has deprived hundreds of residents of their livelihoods and DSS has repeatedly brought the issue to the notice of the concerned district and divisional level authorities also on several occasions, but little heed has been paid to our concerns, Shri Charak regretted.
The matter of undue delay in release of Compensation to other Land Owners (Zamindarans) whose land was acquired by the government for link roads and other Road Construction during 2007 – 2010 under NABARD projects, was also highlighted by Shri Charak.
Shri Charak warned that the unplanned and ill executed road andrailway lineconstruction works through excessive use of explosives and JCBs will continue to bring greater disaster. He recalled that the seriousness of issue of rampant and unchecked deforestation in the name of clearing the road alignment was raised on several occasions and now, no amount of reforestation could be an immediate solution against landslides and land subsidence, once started.
Shri Charak emphasised that while the DSS appreciated the need to construct good roads, improve last village connectivity, construct hydel-projects and other necessary infrastructure to cater to the needs of ever increasing population, visitors, tourists’ traffic and development, but there is an urgent need for the government to constitute an appropriate and empowered committee to have a detailed appraisal, unbiased supervision and monitoring of ongoing works to fix responsibility for losses and to accelerate provision of due compensation/ relief and permanent accommodation to adversely affected families. besides suggesting corrective measures.
Shri Charak said that the Road Construction Companies must be directed by the government to mandatorily engage the qualified engineers and other workers and staff from within the UT and the locality to prevent such kind of disasters and avoid growing resentment amongst the people on this account.Expressing profound concern over the situation, he further demanded that the L.G , Chief Secretary and special teams from Government of India should immediately visit affected area to assure the suffering people for immediate relief measures. Moreover, the former Minister reiterated that the Saddal Village in Panchari, Udhampur adopted by MOS and sitting MP Dr. Jitendra Singh has still been sinking and nothing has been done to provide relief to those families and he could not find time to visit these unfortunate people even for once.
