No construction on river banks in Kedarnath: Vijay Bahuguna

NEW DELHI: No construction will be allowed on river
banks in Kedarnath and near other shrines in
Uttarakhand and a reconstruction plan has been
chalked out to ensure sustainable development,
Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said Saturday.
"We have chalked out a major reconstruction plan to
protect Kedarnath and other shrines for the next
100, 200 or even 300 years. No construction will be
allowed on river banks in Kedarnath and other
shrines," Bahuguna said.
Speaking to news channel India TV, Bahuguna said he
met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking an
advanced warning system for the entire Himalayan
region to forecast earthquakes, cloudbursts and
landslides.
He said nearly 300 villages will have to be relocated
at a cost of Rs.8,000 crore as the rivers have
changed their courses.
"We will discuss with the Geological Survey of India,
Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology and IIT
Roorkee about our reconstruction and rehabilitation
plans," he said.
To regulate flow of people in the pilgrim town of
Kedarnath, Bahuguna said: "From now on, we will
start registration of pilgrims going to Kedarnath and
Badrinath to regulate pilgrimage."
"There shall be separate roads for entry and exit,
cable cars will be installed and we are planning to
construct 100 helipads, which will be helpful in
times of calamities," he said.
The chief minister said so far nearly 4,500 people
have been reported missing since the June 16
calamity.
"We have asked chief secretaries of all states to send
us lists of pilgrims reported missing from their
states. We had set a one month deadline from the
date of the calamity for tracing missing people,
which has now passed," he said.
"Now, I can say that there are no chances of any
more survivors. We will collate the lists of missing
people from states with our own list based on FIRs
filed in Uttarakhand and then arrive at a correct
figure of those presumed dead," he said.
On granting compensation, the chief minister said
Rs.500,000 each will be given to the next of kin of
the deceased who were from Uttarakhand and
Rs.350,000 to the kin of the dead from other states.
Bahuguna feared more bodies might still be trapped
under the huge amount of slush that has covered
Kedarnath town.
"The entire slush has congealed into rock and
because of continuous rains, the restoration work is
being hampered," he said.
He said DNA samples and personal articles like
watches, earrings and other articles recovered from
bodies that have been cremated so far have been
preserved.
"We will post them on the Uttarakhand website, so
that the relatives can identify them and come
forward to claim them. Close relatives will have to
give their blood samples for DNA matching," he
added.