Congress demands clarity on Dharali disaster deaths, Rs 50 L aid for every affected family

PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/Dehradun

 Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Ganesh Godiyal has said that the State government should clear the confusion about the number of the persons who had died in the Dharali disaster of Uttarkashi. Interacting with the media persons at Rajiv Bhawan here on Friday, the Congress leader said that the disaster management department had mentioned that 67 people were dead and missing in Dharali while the position holder in State government, colonel (retd) Ajay Kothiyal has recently said that 147 bodies are still buried in debris. The government has now claimed that 52 people are dead and missing in Dharali. Godiyal said that the government should clear the confusion created by it and tell the truth to the people.

The PCC president who had visited Dharali along with the fact finding team of Congress party on Thursday said that the government has failed to take concrete and effective steps for reconstruction, relief and rehabilitation of the disaster affected people even after four months of the disaster. He said that 250 Nalis of land in Dharali had been completely damaged while 112 residential houses and 70 hotels and homestays had been affected in the disaster. Godiyal added that no effort was made to retrieve the bodies in the debris and the team found no activity of administration on ground zero in Dharali. 

He demanded that the State government should follow the model adopted by the Congress government during the Kedarnath disaster of 2013 in which the compensation was paid on the basis of self-assessment done by the affected families. 

 He said that a comprehensive relief package should be announced and a minimum compensation of Rs 50 lakh for every affected family should be given.

Former PCC president Karan Mahara said that it is unfortunate that nothing has changed in Dharali even four months after the disaster. He said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a relief package of Rs 1200 crore for disaster relief but till today not even a single rupee has been released by the Union government. Mahara added that the Congress party will stand shoulder to shoulder with the affected families till normalcy doesn’t return back to Dharali.