Uttarakhand CM Dhami arrives in Joshimath to inspect 'sinking' town

Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami arrived in the Joshimath town of the state's Chamoli district to conduct a survey of the land subsidence-affected areas and meet the affected families

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Saturday arrived in the Joshimath town of the state's Chamoli district to conduct a survey of the land subsidence-affected areas and meet the affected families.

The chief minister had before arriving in the town conducted an aerial survey of Joshimath.

In Joshimath town, huge cracks have been seen in houses, roads and fields and many houses have suffered subsidence. Cracks have been found at several places on the Joshimath-Malari border road, which connects the India-China border, due to landslides in Joshimath. A large part of Badrinath National Highway is also in the grip of landslides.

Joshimath Municipal Chairman Shailendra Pawar said huge cracks appeared in the houses due to water leakage from inside the ground in the Marwadi ward.

The central government on Friday set up a panel to conduct a study of the occurrence of land subsidence and its impact on the Joshimath town.

District Magistrate Himanshu Khurana said that all construction work has been halted in view of the situation in Joshimath until further orders.

According to the Chamoli district administration statement on Friday, out of 561 establishments, 153 in Ravigram ward, 127 in the Gandhinagar ward, 28 in the Marwadi ward, 24 in the Lower Bazaar ward, 52 in the Singhdhar ward, 71 in the Manohar Bagh ward, 29 in the Upper Bazaar ward 27 in the Sunil ward and 50 in Parsari have reported cracks, due to which the operations of Hotel View and Malari Inn were restricted under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, till further orders.

On Thursday, nine families were displaced, including four families in Joshimath Municipal Corporation, one from Gurudwara Joshimath, one from Tourist Hostel, Manohar Bagh and others.

Locals of Joshimath had blocked the Badrinath Highway on Thursday morning to protest and get the government and administration to take the matter of land subsidence seriously.

A total of 38 families have been displaced so far.

Meanwhile, with the continuous land subsidence in the Joshimath, the state government has dispatched a team of experts to the area to assess the situation.

The teams from National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have also been deployed in the area as a precautionary measure, Chamoli Chief Development Officer (CDO) Lalit Narayan Mishra said on Friday.