Joshimath crisis: A month on, evacuees say forced to live like refugees

The residents of Joshimath on Friday said that they were still waiting to be shifted to the transit shelters or prefabricated homes as promised by the administration, a month after the crisis due to landslide worsened in the Uttarakhand town.

According to the state government data, 878 houses have developed cracks in the region as of February 3.

“It has been a month now. We have been forced to live in a tiny room with the entire family. We were promised transit shelters until a final rehabilitation policy was prepared but nothing of this sort has happened until now,” said Anjali Rawat, who has been living in the Nagar Palika Parishad-based relief camp since January 3 after her house in Singh Dhar ward developed cracks.

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Sharing his concerns, Deepak Rawat, who lives in the room next to Anjali said, “We have been forced to live like refugees in our own town...not even a single affected family has been shifted to the shelters despite the completion of a month.”

Atul Sati, convener of Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, said,said the administration failed to fulfil its promise. “We were promised 4,000 prefabricated homes as transit shelters on January 5 until a final rehabilitation policy and package is prepared. Except for a few model structures, I can’t see anything on the ground”.

Refuting the allegations, Chamoli district magistrate Himanshu Khurana said, “There is no delay. I have been regularly taking updates about the under-construction prefabricated homes. Initially, some affected people didn’t give consent to live in these prefabricated homes... that caused the delay. Despite that, we began the construction.”

Earlier, the district administration had prepared three proposals for the settlement of the displaced people. The proposals would come up for discussion in the state cabinet meeting soon, disaster management secretary Dr Ranjit Kumar Sinha said.