India News | HC Demands U'khand Govt's Reply on Payment of Compensation to Flood-hit Raini Village
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Uttarakhand High Court on Wednesday asked the state government to file a detailed reply by September 8 on payment of compensation to people of Raini village hit by flash floods in February this year.
Nainital, Aug 11 (PTI) The Uttarakhand High Court on Wednesday asked the state government to file a detailed reply by September 8 on payment of compensation to people of Raini village hit by flash floods in February this year.
A division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice R S Chauhan and Justice Alok Kumar Verma, sought the state government's reply, while hearing a PIL on non-payment of compensation to the people affected by the tragedy.
A resident of Almora had filed the PIL in the high court, saying after the flash floods in February, no compensation was given by the state government to the affected families.
The petitioner submitted that no rules have been framed by the Uttarakhand government to pay compensation to the workers of the village, including workers of Nepali origin working in the area.
Also Read | Atmanirbhar Narishakti Se Samvad’: PM Narendra Modi to Interact with Women Self Help Groups Tomorrow.
Earlier, the government had submitted a reply saying that out of 204 affected people, 120 people had been compensated.
Taking cognisance of this reply, the court asked the government about the plight of families of the injured and deceased who have not been compensated.
The petition further claimed that the government did not have any system so far which might provide for a signal before a disaster strikes. The petition also said that no arrangement had been made by the state government for monitoring the high Himalayan regions.
In a 2014 report by Ravi Chopra's committee, it was said that there were many irregularities when it came to disaster management in Uttarakhand.
Weather forecasting devices are not installed in Uttarakhand at an altitude of 5,600 metres and remote sensing equipment is not yet functional in the high altitude areas of the state due to which information about events like cloudburst is not available.
The petition also said that there is no arrangement for safety of the employees of hydro projects. The employees have been given minimal equipment like helmets and vests in the name of safety and no formal training has been provided to them to combat disaster.
The petition alleged that the map of Rishi Ganga Project of NTPC Work Kundan Group was not provided by the company after the disaster due to which the relief and rescue work faced a lot of difficulties. Therefore, criminal proceedings should also be registered against them.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)