The Himachal Pradesh Committee of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has sought the intervention of Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla to take up the matter of a one-time relief package of the amount of actual loss suffered by the state with the Prime Minister.
A delegation of state CPM leaders Rakesh Singha, Dr Kuldeep Tanwar, Sanjay Chauhan, Vijender Mehra, Jagat Ram, Falma Chauhan and Sunil Vashisht met the Governor on Monday and handed him a memorandum.
CPM State Secretariat Member Rakesh Singha apprised the Governor that Himachal Pradesh has lost 337 precious lives; many are still missing and many of whom are dead their bodies are yet to be recovered.
“About 2,000 houses have been completely destroyed and 11,000 have suffered partial damage. There has been heavy loss of cattle, buffaloes, sheep. Agricultural and horticultural land as well as crops, state property other than hydropower projects, power transmission lines, all kinds of government buildings including schools and health institutions, drinking water and irrigation schemes, roads, bridges have been affected across the state,” he said
The state government’s loss is estimated at Rs 10,000 crore, which is very low by all estimates, he claimed.
A large number of farmers have been left without houses and agricultural land as their land has either been completely destroyed, washed away due to cloud bursts, floods, he said.
“Nine lakh farmer families have suffered damage ranging from 5 per cent to 100 per cent to agricultural land and other sources of livelihood. Their means of livelihood have completely been eliminated. Many villages and settlements have been completely destroyed. Without the active participation of the state and central government, it is difficult for the farmers to restore the lost property back to its original condition,” he said.
This continuing natural disaster, the Himalayan Tsunami qualifies for all the parameters of a National Disaster and it can be declared by the Government of India on the same basis as it happened in the state of Uttarakhand in the year 2013 and Andhra Pradesh state in 2014 or any other state where national calamity was declared for similar devastation, he asserted.
He expressed apprehension that as a large number of people have lost their livelihood due to this calamity, hence both the Central and State Governments should come forward to help them, otherwise suicides may also take place in the state to escape the pain of this natural calamity.
In the year 2000, during the tenure of the then state government, the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly brought an amendment in the Himachal Pradesh Land Revenue Act 1954 by introducing Section 163 (A), in which one lakh 67 thousand farmers were considered as the owners of the encroached forest land.
Under such adverse circumstances the state is reeling and considering the state’s revenue crisis, the assistance received from the Central Government is only Rs 200 crore as advance of NDFR and Rs 180 crore of SDRF.
“In such adverse financial circumstances, either the norms of NDRF should be changed as one-time relief to Himachal Pradesh and full amount of actual loss suffered by the state or a relief package of the amount of actual loss suffered by the state, which would be Rs 10,000 crore should be provided,” demanded Singha.