Himachal CPM proposes an all-party meeting to discuss the demand

In light of the recent disaster that hit the state, the Himachal Pradesh Committee of the Communist Party of India Marxist (CPM) has asked Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu to call an all-party conference and create a plan that can be presented to the Union government.

Dr. Onkar Shad, secretary of the CPM Himachal Pradesh State Committee, stressed the necessity for an all-party meeting to push for the demand that the state’s natural catastrophe be declared a national disaster on Wednesday while speaking to the media in this location.

While acknowledging the state government’s efforts to help those who have suffered from natural disasters, he stated that his party believes that the state government can do much more to alleviate problems for its citizens, despite serious constraints.

The burden of restoring normality is enormous since the damage to Himachal Pradesh might well exceed Rs 30,000 crores if all losses, both public and private, are added together. According to government data, as of yesterday, there had been 381 fatalities, 38 people were still missing, 2500 homes had sustained entire devastation, and over 10,000 had partial damage. Numerous thousands of hectares of productive agricultural and horticultural land have been damaged or swept away, making it impossible for them to be recovered. Standing crops worth hundreds of millions of rupees in agriculture and horticulture have been utterly devastated, he lamented.

Under such dire conditions, he added, the whole state of Himachal Pradesh should urge in unison that the federal government proclaim the natural catastrophe a national disaster.

The criteria or guidelines for awarding money under the NDRF should be loosened so that the real loss is reimbursed, and the relief measures under the SDRF should be improved so that the cost of repairing the damage falls less heavily on the catastrophe victims. If this is unsuccessful, the Union government should be asked for a special gift of 10,000 crores of rupees, he said.

In addition, he urged that the Himachal Vidhan Sabha’s and an all-party meeting’s motions to alter the Forest Conservation Act of 1980 be enacted in order to provide for the rehabilitation and resettlement of individuals who have lost both their home and their land for farming and horticulture as a result of the natural disaster.

He demanded that the time frame be extended from 1 July to 31 August and that the damage done beyond this period may also be taken into consideration if the process of damage is of a continuous nature. The notification dated 17 July 2023 for framing a “Special Relief Package” to provide special norms for relief and rehabilitation from rain, flood, cloudburst, landslide, or any other similar form of damage was intended to cover all of Himachal Pradesh.

He also underlined the need to increase crop damage compensation from the current level of Rs 2000 per bigha to Rs 10,000.

He urged for the announcement of a prohibition on bank lending.