BJP leader and Uttarakhand Ex-Servicemen Welfare Advisory Committee president Colonel Ajay Kothiyal (retd) has criticised the rescue efforts at Dharali, where a landslide left at least 69 dead in August. He claimed that 147 people had been trapped under the debris and that government institutions failed to rescue them.
This has prompted the Opposition Congress to train its guns on the government in connection with the issue and announce that a party delegation would visit the affected village, which is located in the Uttarkashi district.
As part of the World Summit on Disaster Management conducted by the Uttarakhand State Council for Science and Technology (UCOST) at Graphic Era University, Kothiyal criticised the institutions of the state for not conducting enough research on the Dharali disaster and allegedly failing to rescue “147 people” from under the debris.
“Since August 5 [when the landslide happened], no work has been undertaken in Dharali. There should be an attempt to get things out. If my ancestral god has been buried in the floods, how will I leave the village? My children’s degrees have been lost… Geologists, UCOST, Wadia Institute [of Himalayan Geology] have not been able to do anything. The videos show NDRF digging the debris; it is the work of labourers, the NDRF’s expertise comes once the debris is cleared,” he said.
He also said that scientists did not visit the region from where the debris flow occurred. “They sent two people from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering up to capture photos. On this basis, they wrote a report and sent it to the government. Evidencing this, the government will decide that Dharali should be evacuated,” he said.
On the Army personnel trapped in the debris in Harsil, he said a few of them could be recovered. “In Dharali, of the 147 trapped, not one could be recovered,” he claimed.
The government had said that 67 were missing and two bodies were retrieved. The government announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the kin of the deceased after declaring them dead in September.
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Following these remarks, the Congress said a party delegation would visit the village to mark four months since the tragedy.
Congress state president Ganesh Godiyal said Kothiyal made “revelations” that raise serious questions about the Pushkar Singh Dhami government’s handling of the Dharali disaster. Godiyal alleged that Colonel Kothiyal’s remarks make it clear that the figures presented by the government were incomplete and misleading, and that there had been gross negligence in the relief and rehabilitation efforts in Dharali.
A high-level delegation of the Uttarakhand Congress will conduct an on-ground inspection of the disaster-affected area on Thursday.
Godiyal said that after the 2013 natural disaster, the Congress High Command had removed its own chief minister from office because he failed to show seriousness and honesty in carrying out disaster relief efforts. But the current central government does not appear serious or sensitive towards disasters and disaster-affected regions, he alleged. “When the Chief Minister’s own representative is exposing the government’s failures regarding the situation in Dharali, it is evident that the government has concealed information from the public,” Godiyal said.
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Colonel Ajay Kothiyal had contested, unsuccessfully, as AAP’s chief ministerial candidate in the Assembly elections. Later, he switched to the BJP.
A mountaineer and philanthropist, Kothiyal was part of the first successful team of the Indian Army that climbed Mount Everest in 2001. Kothiyal has also overseen the Kedarnath disaster rescue efforts in 2013 while serving as the head of the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM). He formed five rescue teams of 20 people each, including soldiers of the 109 Engineer Regiment, and rescued around 6,500 tourists.
The state government has yet to provide a conclusive cause for the disaster. Dharali is situated at the confluence of Kheer Ganga, a tributary, and the river Bhagirathi. The cause of the flood remains unknown, with IMD data ruling out a cloudburst. Speculation has been rife, with experts pointing to the collapse of a hanging glacier, which was
