Express News Service
JOSHIMATH: No doubt, memories of childhood, youth, marriage, festivals and later ages in Joshimath have been captured by the displaced on their mobile cameras, but the question of resuming life and healing the wounds of displacement stands before every member of the family who became a refugee in a single night in their city.
The house of 65-year-old Hema Devi Lama of Singhdhar, born in Joshimath, has also been put on the demolition list by the administration. Hema told The New Indian Express, “She became a widow after a year of marriage. It was a huge setback in his life, but today leaving the 100-year-old birthplace of his ancestors with a family of six members is the second wound of his life, which will never heal again”.
Architect Ved Prakash Pant is also one of the victims who are on the verge of facing migration due to the employment crisis. Being an empanelled architect, the map was approved by him for the construction of most of the houses in the urban area. Pant’s business has also come under crisis due to the administration
banning the construction indefinitely in the future. Several generations of architect Pant’s family have had an old connection with Joshimath.
Most people in Joshimath are solely blaming the central and state governments for the man-made disaster and the unplanned development of hydropower projects here. Thousands of people here are among those who are suffering the consequences of this mistake.
After retiring as ANM from the district hospital Joshimath, the wife of Virendra Singh Negi, a resident of Narsingh Mandir, invested all her life’s earnings and funds to build a house. As soon as Negi came to know that his house, built recently at a cost of Rs 40 lakh, has also been listed among the Red Mark buildings, Negi, who is unable to bear the shock, started drinking throughout the day to ease the grief.
The gateway to Badrinath Dham and Hemkund Sahib is the legendary ‘Jyotirmath’, which later became Joshimath, here it is not just the story of a house of two or four houses, but the pain of hundreds of families and thousands of residents that will haunt them for a lifetime.
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Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has reiterated his resolve to restore the originality of Joshimath, with the administration and police making every effort while standing as a ‘guardian’ with the victims without loss of life.
“We are concerned for every citizen of Joshimath and it is nowhere that Joshimath is sinking,” Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami told the media at the ITBP guest house on Wednesday night. “The central government is closely monitoring the situation and has given Rs 1.5 lakh as immediate interim assistance to help the affected so that they do not face any difficulty in these circumstances,” he said.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Padma Shri Dr Anil Prakash Joshi, an environmentalist, said, “We are not against development, but the process we adopt and incorporate is more important. Joshimath is an example of how we are developing infrastructure, which is being quoted but the entire Himalayas are weak and sensitive”.
