Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu called on the Union Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav at New Delhi on Friday evening. He apprised the Union Minister about the losses incurred by the state due to recent cloud bursts and heavy rains and added that heavy losses occurred to buildings and infrastructure , roads, bridges, water supply schemes, residential properties besides losses to precious human lives during the current monsoons.
Sh. Sukhu urged the Union Minister to allow the allocation of one bigha land for the rehabilitation of disaster-affected families, who have rendered homeless and landless. With 68 percent of the State under forest cover, he emphasized the need to relax forest norms to facilitate rehabilitation.
He also held discussions about dredging in rivers and urged to give necessary directions for disposal of the dredged material for disaster prevention. He also urged that separate norms should be fixed for hill states keeping in view their tough topography and special needs.
He also apprised the Union Minister about frequent recurrence of cloud bursts leading to natural disasters and severe losses. He informed that the matter was discussed with Home Minister and a team had visited the state to study the impact of climate change.
Deputy Chief Whip Kewal Singh Pathania, MLAs Sanjay Awasthy, Suresh Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary Forest K.K Pant, Principal Resident Commissioner Ajay Yadav and senior officers of State Government and the Ministry were present in the meeting.