PMO to hold high-level meeting on Joshimath crisis: Key points | India News – Times of India
P K Mishra, the principal secretary to the prime minister, will hold the review meeting with the cabinet secretary, other senior officials of the central government and members of the National Disaster Management Authority, an official statement said.
District officials of Joshimath besides senior officials of Uttarakhand will also attend the review meeting through video-conferencing.
Shankaracharya Matth also develops cracks
One of the Hindu monasteries, the Shankaracharya Matth in Joshimath area, has also developed cracks in many places over the past 15 days, triggering a scare in the religious institute.
According to the Jyotirmath administration, these cracks have increased in the last 15 days.
Swami Vishwapriyananda, chief of Matth has cited the ‘development” as the cause of the calamity.
The holy town has been facing massive land-subsidence, aggravated significantly in the past few days.
Joshimath, the gateway to famous pilgrimage sites like Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib and international skiing destination Auli, is facing a major challenge due to land subsidence.
Dhami visits Joshimath, says evacuating families on priority
Uttrakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had visited Joshimath on Saturday to assess the situation on the ground, a day after he directed immediate evacuation of around 600 affected families.
Dhami said Joshimath is an important place from the cultural, religious and tourism point of view and all efforts will be made to save it.
‘Demolish worst affected Joshimath homes’
An eight-member expert panel has recommended that “houses in Joshimath with maximum damage should be demolished, areas which have become inhabitable must be identified and relocation of the people at risk should be done as an immediate measure”.
The expert team, which was urgently tasked to assess the damage to buildings and extent of ground subsidence (sinkage) in Joshimath, visited the affected areas during its two-day survey and finalised its report on Saturday, a copy of which is with TOI.
It has observed “aggravated damages” in Sunil, Manohar Bagh, Singhdhar and Marwari areas, as compared to the last field survey just some months ago in August 2022.
Residents alarmed, administration makes arrangements for families
Residents of Joshimath have been alarmed after fissures started appearing in the houses and roadways and have been evacuated and shifted to night shelters of the municipality by the administration.
According to the District Disaster Management Department, cracks have reportedly developed in as many as 561 houses in Joshimath as a result of continued land subsidence in the town.
Meanwhile, the number of affected structures — residential, commercial and even temples — which have developed large cracks has increased from 561 to 603 within a span of a mere 48 hours.
The district administration has made arrangements for the families affected by the natural calamity to stay in ‘safe relief camps’,” the administration said on Sunday.
District Magistrate Himanshu Khurana visited the relief camps last night and took stock of the arrangements. “If there is any requirement, it is being made available immediately,” he said.
