Chopper to be on standby for emergency ops
DEHRADUN: Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Sunday gave permission for stationing a helicopter in Pithoragarh district for two months to deal with emergency situations and carry our rescue and relief operations in the wake of disasters caused due to heavy rains and other factors.
The chief minister also directed that when the helicopter is not involved in rescue and relief operations, it should be made available for local air connectivity to people in the area on concessional charges. Dhami said the rate per person for availing the services of the helicopter would be ₹3000. The chief minister also approved ₹1.6 crore for the shifting and rehabilitation of 38 families from the disasterprone areas of the district like Dharchula, Munsiyari and Bangapani.
During heavy rains, apart from rain-induced disasters like landslides and flash floods, many areas in Pithoragarh get disconnected from the rest of the district. Also, due to heavy rains, essential supplies get disrupted to remote and interior areas of the district. People in the area have demanded chopper service for providing them relief, especially during the monsoon months. There have been instances in the past when the district administration had to seek services of a helicopter to ferry essential supplies to the cut-off areas.
In October 2018, Uttarakhand high court, while responding to a PIL filed by Mahendra Singh Budiyal from Pithoragarh, directed the state government to provide necessary rations and other essential items within 24 hours through helicopter to nearly 9000 people in around a dozen villages near China border in Pithoragarh district which at lacked road access. The PIL had highlighted that due to disruption in communication and connectivity, people in nearly a dozen villages did not have necessary and essential food items and other necessities.
HC in its order had noted that the residents of the hilly areas have a fundamental right to roads, as held by Supreme Court in the case of State of Himachal Pradesh & another vs. Umed Ram Sharma & others, reported in 1986.
It also stressed that it is the utmost duty of state government to provide rations to the remotest villages even by deploying a special team or by airlift. Total 9000 residents of the area in Uttarakhand in the remotest villages abutting the Chinese border are facing extreme hardship, HC had noted.
Rudrapur: In a bid to check the traffic congestion in Nainital on weekends, the administration has made hotel booking mandatory for the entry in the hill station.
“Police are facing challenges in maintaining smooth traffic due to the excessive crowd. Tourist vehicles are creating severe traffic congestion on weekends. To avoid congestion and crowd, police have imposed new system, under which only those vehicles will be allowed to enter Nainital whose owners or travellers would have hotel bookings on weekends, said Jagdish Chandra, senior superintendent of police (city), Haldwani in Nainital.
To avert crowd and traffic congestion in Nainital on weekends, the administration had made compulsory last 72-hour RT-PCR report and registration on smart city portal for the tourists. Now one more condition has been added, only those tourists will be welcomed on weekends who will have hotel bookings.
“Police are checking vehicles at the check-posts set up at the border of the district. Police personnel are also putting stickers on the vehicles as per desired destinations of the tourists. Tourists who have hotel bookings in Nainital will be provided a sticker of Nainital. Others will be sent to Bhimtal, Bhowali and other hill stations,” said Chandra.
Police have set up a check-post in Lalkuan, near Bailbaba temple,
Gadpoo barrier, Kaladhungi where vehicles and RT-PCR report and registrations are being checked. Notably, twowheelers of the tourists are not allowed in Nainital on weekends. They are parked in Rusi and Narayan Nagar bypass from where shuttle service has been provided to reach Nainital. Hotel booking condition will be applicable only for weekends, Chandra added.