Joshimath: No development required at cost of human life, says plea in SC

A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court to immediately intervene to assist the reparation work of Uttarakhand and to provide urgent relief to the people of Joshimath facing extremities and danger to their life and property.

The plea filed by Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, a religious leader, seeks direction to declare the current incidents of land sliding, subsidence, land sinking, land burst and cracks in the land and properties as National disaster and direct the National Disaster Management Authority to actively support the residents of Joshimath in this tough time.

The petition seeks to provide immediate financial assistance and compensation to the people of Uttarakhand losing their houses and lands on account of land sliding, land sinking, subsidence and cracking of houses and properties.

"In the name of and/or for the cause of development the respondents have no right to push the people in the mouth of death and the religious sacred town in extinction and thereby infringe the fundamental right of the people of the Joshimath including the petitioner as well as inmates of his Monastery guaranteed under article 21, 25 and 26 of the Constitution of India," it stated.

The entire mess of environmental, ecological and geological disturbances occurred due to large-scale manly intervention in the form of Industrialisation, urbanisation and destruction of natural resources by the Union and State government in the State of Uttarakhand, the petition said.

It further said, "No development is needed at the cost of human life and their ecosystem and if anything such is happening it is the duty of the State and Union government to stop the same immediately at war level."

It said the petition was filed to secure the life and personal liberty of the people of Joshimath town in the Chamoli District of Uttarakhand, wherein the life of the people is lurching large due to imminent and sudden cases of land subsidence, land sliding, the sudden eruption of water, cracking of houses and subsidence and cracking of agriculture plots resulted on account of man-made activities which given rise to recurrent natural calamities which were earlier very rare.

"Issue direction to the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) to provide insurance coverage to the residents of Joshimath and to duly compensate the affected residents from the disaster caused by land sliding, land sinking, land burst, subsidence resulting into cracking of houses and lands," it said.

Direct NTPC and Border Road Organisation (BRO) to rehabilitate the affected citizens of Joshimath at safer and suitable places convenient to them, it added.

Direct Centre, National Disaster Management Authority, Uttarakhand to take effective and proactive steps to protect the spiritual and religious and cultural places of Hindus including Sikhs at Joshimath; especially the Jyotirmath and adjoining sacred shrines/temples wherein deities are being worshipped since time immemorial, it urged the court.

"Direct the respondents to immediately stop construction and building work of the Tapovan Vishnugad Hydro Electric, Project tunnel and not to begin again till the high-level committee of geologists, hydrologists and engineers constituted by this court," it added.