Uproar in Himachal Assembly over disaster management, opposition stages walkout

The Opposition BJP created an uproar in the winter session of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly in Dharamshala on Wednesday over the issue of disaster management, and later staged a walkout.

BJP members expressed dissatisfaction over the reply given by Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi.

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Heated exchanges marred the House proceedings as ruling and opposition benches created a ruckus, and BJP MLAs raised slogans before walking out of the House.

After the opposition’s walkout, an upset Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu strongly condemned their behaviour and urged Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania to take cognisance of the matter.

He said the opposition was unnecessarily leaving the House.

The Speaker said he could not pass any ruling unless a formal proposal was brought before him. In response, the Chief Minister said he would move a censure motion in the Assembly.

Earlier, replying to the discussion on the disaster issue, Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi said the government had taken up with the Registrar General of India the matter of declaring those missing in incidents of floods, landslides, and cloudbursts as deceased.

He said that once permission is granted by the Registrar General, compensation will be provided to the families of the missing persons.
The minister further said the state government has launched a Rs 2,650 crore project with World Bank assistance to improve infrastructure in disaster-affected areas.

He said the National Centre for Seismology, the Ministry of Earth Sciences, and the State Disaster Management Authority are working on establishing an earthquake early warning system in Himachal on a pilot basis.

Negi said that a special relief package was released during the 2023 disaster, and it has been implemented across the state.

He said natural disasters cause an average annual loss of Rs 3,000 crore in Himachal. This year, a memorandum of loss amounting to over Rs 5,909 crore has been sent to the Centre, he added.

He informed that the state has not yet received any special assistance from the central government for this year’s losses.

“In the current financial year, more than Rs 76.50 crore has been released as relief to affected people in Bilaspur, Kullu, and Mandi districts under the special relief package,” he said, adding Rs 1,202.90 crore is expected to be spent this year for relief, rescue operations, and disaster response activities under NDRF, SDRF, and PDNA.

Negi said that to reduce the impact of disasters, the state has signed an agreement with the French AFD agency for a project worth Rs 892 crore.

The government has also entered into an MoU with IITM Pune for the study of increasing cloudburst and flood incidents in Himachal, which will help in disaster mitigation.

Meanwhile, Opposition members stood up from their seats, alleging that no satisfactory reply was being given regarding disaster-related work.

The House witnessed noisy scenes as the opposition members raised slogans and walked out.