Chamoli victims yet to receive aid

By Our Staff Correspondent

DEHRA DUN, FEB. 1. About 30,000 people who lost their houses in the earthquake that rocked Rudraprayag, Chamoli and Tehri districts on March 28, 1999, are yet to receive the meager Rs. 25,000 each as government aid to reconstruct their homes.

The district authorities have repeatedly asked the Uttar Pradesh Government earlier and the Uttaranchal Government recently but the aid does not seem to be coming - at least in the near future, a senior official said today.

Officials admit that a house cannot be built for Rs. 25,000 even in the plains whereas building costs are much higher in the hill districts.

It may be recalled that over 100 persons lost their lives in the earthquake .

According to official figures, 5,132 houses were totally destroyed in Chamoli district. Of this, the owners of about 150 houses have got three installments of the aid while the fourth is yet to be paid.

No relief has been given so far to the over 7,500 people of this district whose houses were damaged partially. Official figures, however, indicate that Rs. 16 crores have been spent on various relief works.

The 790 people, whose houses were completely destroyed, and 3,900 odd people, whose houses were rendered unfit for habitation, in Rudraprayag district are yet to receive even half the relief amount.

The nearly 24,000 families, whose houses were damaged but fell short of the ``fully damaged'' definition, will however not receive even the paltry aid that has been promised to those whose houses were totally destroyed, it was said.

Reacting sharply to the delay in rehabilitation works in Chamoli and Rudraprayag districts, Mr. Sunil Ramola, wondered why the government too tended to forget the victims after a few months of any disaster.

``Will the Chief Minister, Mr. Nityanand Swami, order the immediate rehabilitation of all those affected by the 1999 earthquake?,'' Mr. Ramola asked, calling for the redefinition of relief to be given for different categories of damage caused by natural calamities in Uttaranchal which was highly prone to earthquakes, landslides and soil erosion.

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