Uttarakhand preparing land bank, women hit by flood

DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand government today decided to identify land to relocate villages swept away by the June flashfloods and launch women-centric vocational schemes designed to help those who lost their husbands or breadwinners in the tragedy.

Announcing this at a press conference here, Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said women, who lost their husbands or breadwinners in the tragedy, are being identified so that they could benefit from the rehabiliation schemes to be launched for them.

With the process of evacuating people stranded in high altitudes being over, the priority of the government now is to put life back on track in the flood ravaged areas, he said.

Land banks (areas where land for relocation purposes is available) will soon be identified and the process of rehabilitating people rendered homless by the calamity will begin at the earliest, Bahuguna said.

In view of the foodgrain shortage, a problem which often accompanies tragedies of this scale, the state government has also decided to set up grain banks at about 30 places across the state where people can procure foodgrains in times of crisis, he said.

The state government is also conmtemplating pension to women who became widows in the calamity and those who were maimed, he said.

A proposal to this effect is being prepared which might get clearance at the next meeting of the state cabinet, Bahuguna said after a meeting with AICC general secretary incharge of party affairs in Uttarakhand Ambika Soni, Union Water Resources Minister Harish Rawat and senior ministerial colleagues to review relief and rehabilitation efforts underway in affected areas of the state.