The CPI-ML (Liberation) has decided to take up the issue of ‘Save Joshimath’ campaign during its 11^th party Congress to be held in Patna from February 15.

CPI-ML General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya in an exclusive interview with The Statesman said that way back in 1976, an 18-member committee headed by then Collector MC Mehta had alarmed the government that indiscriminate construction must be stopped to save Joshimath from sinking.

“Yet no government really paid much attention to this serious warning. The foundation of the state in 2000 was in fact treated as a licence to go for reckless construction of roads, dams and tunnels in the name of development,” said Dipankar.

He further said that the escalation of construction activities can be clearly assessed from one figure. In 2000 at the time of notification of the new state, Uttarakhand had a road network of 8000 km and in two decades it has jumped five-fold to 40,000 km.

The National Institute of Disaster Management in 2013 had identified dam construction as a key reason for increasing flash floods, he said and added that the region has recorded just four major flash floods between 1989 and 1999. The number went up to 22 in the next ten years (2002-2012).

“We have prepared a draft resolution on ‘Save Joshimath’ campaign to be put up before the delegates of the party congress. The party has decided to take up a series of programmes to put pressure on the government against the forces of corporate greed and autocratic governance,” he told The Statesman.

In fact, we have been waging a sustainable war against the uneven construction of hotels, dams, tunnels and hydel power projects for more than three decades. After the February 2021 disaster a group of petitioners comprising residents of Rani village under the banner of the ‘Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti’ went to the high court seeking an immediate halt to the Tapovan, Vishnugarh and Rishiganga power projects and rehabilitation of all disaster affected people.

“The crisis is so deep that this historic city can even be erased,” said Atul Sati, convenor of the Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (JBSS) while talking to The Statesman on phone. Sati has been actively associated with the movement against the ‘uneven growth’ and so-called development of Joshimath.

Sati said that the construction of big hotels without proper drainage hydel power projects, widening of roads and tunnels have made the situation more vulnerable in areas like Bhatwari, Pauri, Karnprayag, Nainital, Gopeshwar and August Muni. “We have not learnt any lessons from our previous major disasters,” he said.

Besides taking up issues like the fight against fascism, international and national issues, the party has for the first time decided to raise two vital issues – climate change and save Joshimath in the Congress in which more than 1700 delegates from across the country and abroad are expected to attend. A massive rally – Loktantra Bachao, Desh Bachao – would be organised here on February 15.