The Beas tragedy

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Beas Tragedy Himachal’s Ill-Preparedness Exposed

Anni This Week Team

The Beas tragedy has exposed ill-preparedness of the state government to tackle a post-disaster situation. With the state government caught totally unaware as to how to tackle a post-disaster situation, the Andhra Pradesh and the Telangana governments have now apparently taken over the search operation for the bodies of engineering students from V.N.R Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad. The AP and the Telangana governments are assisting NDRF, SSB, ITBP, Navy and other agencies in the search operation even as Himachal Pradesh regime is facing ire of the parents of the victims for neither having resources, nor knowledge to carry out such an exercise. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has deployed an unmanned aerial vehicle and Multibeam echosounders to trace the bodies of missing engineering students from Hyderabad, besides sending more divers to speed up the search operation in Beas River. Only eight bodies including three of girls have been recovered till June 12. Notably, twenty five people, including 24 engineering students, were washed away on June 8 evening in a flash flood caused by the sudden opening of the flood gates at the Larji hydel project dam in Kullu district.

Parliament Standing Committee Had Exposed Bitter Truth in 2012

Mastram Dalel

The bitter truth related to the dams of Himachal Pradesh had been revealed by the Parliament Standing Committee two years ago. It had been cleared in the report of the committee that dams constructed for hydro power projects in Himachal are a matter of disaster itself. The report mentioned that manual of central water commission is not followed in the dams of hill state.  The project management opens the gates of the dams according to its wish. And for the same neither the set standard of ringing hooter is followed nor are the gates opened on the basis of water level.  The committee submitted its report after the extensive study of the standards set for the security and safety of the dams across the country. The report said that manuals are avoided in about 80% dams across the country. The standing committee made an elaborate mention of the dams in Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand and other hilly states. Larji project released the water from the dams keeping aside the safety manual which resulted in death of numerous students of engineering college of Hyderabad. Notably, Larji project constructed at the confluence of four rivers namely Beas, Parvati, Sainj and Tirthan is considered as one of the ideal hydropower projects of Himachal. It is surprising that the ideal hydropower project of the state has avoided all the safety manuals to be followed before releasing water from the dam.

 Disaster of Himachal’s Disaster Management

Y.S. Rana

Recent tragedy in district Mandi where 24 engineering students were washed away in River Beas totally due to human mistake. On the other hand, government could not provide timely assistance to the victims.  It raises a question; Is the state government prepared to meet the challenge of any disaster or natural calamity? Well, answer will be in the negative. A prying look at the basics reveals that disaster management is not on government agenda. According to a report of the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) 27 of the 29 states held 544 training programmes during 2010-11 for preparing a force of trained staff.  Himachal Pradesh has held 67 training programmes and trained around 1421 officials.  The state has been allocated fund worth Rs 130.76 crore (2010-11); Rs 137.30 crore (201-12); Rs 144.11 crore (2012-13); Rs 151-38 crore (2013-14) and Rs 158.95 crore for 2014-15 for disaster management. Besides this four crore rupees are given to the state every year for capacity building for disaster response. Many well intentioned plans fail to meet the challenge mainly because of the lack of political and bureaucratic will as well as rampant corruption. It has neither regular staff, nor well prepared officials for facing a disaster or contingency. And, worse still, the grant received from the Centre for the purpose has not been utilized properly. During the last decade more than 40 big disasters have struck the state and properties and lives worth crores of rupees have been lost but lack of political resolve hampers to address the disaster in right perspective. There are a number of critical gaps in the state disaster management programme. There is no formal training and lack of awareness among stakeholders about the disaster risk and vulnerability. The states have been suggested to familiarize police personnel with the basics of disaster management and train at least one battalion in disaster management as a specialized force. The National Disaster Management Authority embarks on states to have technology-driven capacity building, preventive and multi-sectoral participatory strategies. The state is supposed to have a dedicated fail-proof and integrated communication network to maintain connectivity among various emergency operation and command centres that will be set up in every district and state capital to ensure timely evacuation, relief and rescue work.  “The state government should look disasters as a process and not an event and build capacity by training local residents and government officials in preventing and mitigating disaster management operation,” said a geologist of Chandigarh