Tag: Shimla

  • First person: Tale of destruction from Shimla

    By PTI

    SHIMLA: “Will we also die, will our house too break, papa,” my six-year-old daughter asked as the horror of the devastating rains here hit home on Independence Day.

    Our family had rushed out after hearing a deafening roar. There were screams as the side of a hill barely 100 metres from our home, across a nullah, slid. A couple of multi-storey houses, some makeshift homes and a slaughterhouse were buried under the rubble.

    Our daughter was already upset when this landslide in Krishnanagar locality took place. Two girls, studying in nursery and class 2 at her school, had died Monday when a landslip buried a Shiv temple in Summer Hill locality.

    But for us, the landslide nearer home was more heartbreaking, even if the casualties were far fewer than in the one at the Shiv temple.

    The Krishnanagar houses had begun showing cracks and most people had evacuated hours earlier. Minutes later, when I reached the spot, people who had lost their homes were howling. A woman ran around barefoot, searching for her husband.

    An employee at the slaughterhouse — the building below the houses on the hillside — was looking for his manager.

    “I can see a hand,” a man said.

    Rescue workers had a tough time keeping people away as mud continued to slide.

    “Should I touch your feet, only then would you leave?” a rescue worker told a local resident.

    Shaken by the landslide, people in adjoining homes that were still standing too began to leave, carrying away whatever they could. A small girl held a bag as she sobbed. A man carried his old mother on his shoulders. I too left to file the report.

    There was no electricity at my home-office and several other Shimla localities for two days, and I typed on my phone. Every now and then it needed to be plugged into the car-charger.

    Later, two bodies were pulled out of the rubble. One of them, a police officer told me, had been decapitated.

    Battered by three days of rain, the Himachal Pradesh capital tells a tale of destruction.

    There have been other smaller landslips. The city is dotted with fallen trees and snapped power lines. Cracks have appeared on roads and several buildings are at risk. Cart Road, which encircles Shimla, is blocked due to two landslides, which it is feared might lead to the collapse of some endangered buildings.

    On Mall Road, tourists are missing. Over 30 people have died in Shimla district.

    The state-wise toll over three days of rains crossed 70 on Wednesday, and more bodies needed to be pulled out of the rubble.

    SHIMLA: “Will we also die, will our house too break, papa,” my six-year-old daughter asked as the horror of the devastating rains here hit home on Independence Day.

    Our family had rushed out after hearing a deafening roar. There were screams as the side of a hill barely 100 metres from our home, across a nullah, slid. A couple of multi-storey houses, some makeshift homes and a slaughterhouse were buried under the rubble.

    Our daughter was already upset when this landslide in Krishnanagar locality took place. Two girls, studying in nursery and class 2 at her school, had died Monday when a landslip buried a Shiv temple in Summer Hill locality.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    But for us, the landslide nearer home was more heartbreaking, even if the casualties were far fewer than in the one at the Shiv temple.

    The Krishnanagar houses had begun showing cracks and most people had evacuated hours earlier. Minutes later, when I reached the spot, people who had lost their homes were howling. A woman ran around barefoot, searching for her husband.

    An employee at the slaughterhouse — the building below the houses on the hillside — was looking for his manager.

    “I can see a hand,” a man said.

    Rescue workers had a tough time keeping people away as mud continued to slide.

    “Should I touch your feet, only then would you leave?” a rescue worker told a local resident.

    Shaken by the landslide, people in adjoining homes that were still standing too began to leave, carrying away whatever they could. A small girl held a bag as she sobbed. A man carried his old mother on his shoulders. I too left to file the report.

    There was no electricity at my home-office and several other Shimla localities for two days, and I typed on my phone. Every now and then it needed to be plugged into the car-charger.

    Later, two bodies were pulled out of the rubble. One of them, a police officer told me, had been decapitated.

    Battered by three days of rain, the Himachal Pradesh capital tells a tale of destruction.

    There have been other smaller landslips. The city is dotted with fallen trees and snapped power lines. Cracks have appeared on roads and several buildings are at risk. Cart Road, which encircles Shimla, is blocked due to two landslides, which it is feared might lead to the collapse of some endangered buildings.

    On Mall Road, tourists are missing. Over 30 people have died in Shimla district.

    The state-wise toll over three days of rains crossed 70 on Wednesday, and more bodies needed to be pulled out of the rubble.

  • Snowfall throws life out of gear in higher reaches of HP; oppn Cong targets govt

    By PTI

    SHIMLA: Normal life remained out of gear in the higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh, including in capital Shimla, on Saturday as most roads were blocked following the recent snowfall, and contractors tasked with clearing the snow staged a protest.

    Talking to the media here, Shimla Rural MLA Vikramaditya Singh of the Congress said the contractors brought forward their protest originally proposed for Monday, adversely affecting the snow clearance work from most of the roads in Shimla, Kullu, and Chamba districts.

    Blaming the Jai Ram Thakur-led BJP government in the state for the crisis, the Congress MLA said representatives of the contractors had met the chief minister several times in support of their demands for the release of their arrears and GST refunds but the issue was not resolved.

    The state government should immediately resolve their grievances to provide relief to the general public as the contractors with their men and machinery play an important role in clearing snow from the roads, he said.

    State Congress president Kuldeep Singh Rathore alleged that the state government has failed to restore normal life despite clear weather on Saturday. “People are suffering as the power supply in several parts has also been affected, and the state government has failed to restore it,” Rathore said.

    Meanwhile, Urban Development Minister Suresh Bhardwaj urged the contractors not to stop the work of clearing the roads. Contractors play a vital role in restoring normal life after a snowfall, and they should do so this time too, and the government will resolve their grievances at the earliest, he assured in a statement.

    The minister said the issue would be taken up with the chief minister after his arrival in Shimla, and it would be resolved accordingly. The chief minister was in his home district Mandi on Saturday and is likely to return to Shimla soon.

  • Shimla tops Niti Aayog’s urban development index

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: Shimla tops the list of cities scoring highest on urban Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) index. Coimbatore and Chandigarh were at second and third position in the ranking of urban SDG index. Thiruvananthpuram, Kochi, Panaji, Pune, Tiruchirapalli, Ahmedabad and Nagpur are among the list of top 10 cities.

    The Niti Aayog on Tuesday launched the SDG Urban Index & Dashboard (2021-22) which ranks 56 urban areas on 77 SDG indicators across 46 targets of the SDG framework. A senior official said that the index and dashboard will further strengthen SDG localization and institute robust SDG monitoring at the city level. It highlights the strengths and gaps of ULB-level data, monitoring, and reporting systems.

    “Such tools will contribute to the creation of an ecosystem in which all stakeholders will be equipped to adopt and implement data-driven decision making. This transformative change is quite essential, given the increasing prominence of our cities and urban areas in charting the future of development.” 

    Out of 56 urban areas ranked in the index, 44 are with population of above one million. Twelve are state capitals with population of less than a million. While for some indicators, “urban area” implies ULBs, in other cases, it refers to all urban areas within a district collectively. For each SDG, the urban areas are ranked on a scale of 0-100. Overall scores are then generated from the Goal-wise scores to measure aggregate performance of the urban area. 

  • Himachal Pradesh achieves distinction of cent per cent Covid vaccination: CM Jai Ram Thakur

    Jai Ram Thakur also said that Prime Minister Modi has congratulated the state government and agreed to digitally address the people of the state on September 6.

  • Bengaluru, Shimla ranked ‘most livable’ cities in govt’s Ease of Living Index 2020

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Bengaluru topped the list of 111 cities in the government’s ‘Ease of Living Index’ on Thursday, followed by Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Surat, Navi Mumbai, Coimbatore and Vadodra.

    According to the index released by Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Shimla was ranked top in the category of cities with ‘population less than million’.

    New Delhi Municipal Council topped the ‘Municipal Performance Index’ list in the ‘less than million population’ category.

    Indore was ranked top on the ‘Municipal Performance Index’ list in the million-plus population category.

  • Mainpat is called Shimla of Chhattisgarh, various dialects with amazing natural beauty,

    Renowned as Shimla in Chhattisgarh, Mainpat in Sarguja district has a confluence of different dialects, languages ​​and cultures with amazing natural beauty. The combination of Manjhi-Manjhwar, Pahari Korwa, Adivasis, Yadavas and Tibetan language, dialect and culture make Manpat unique. Mainpat is a PAT region located in the northern region of Chhattisgarh. It is situated at an altitude of about 3500 feet above sea level on the Vindhya Range. Spread over 407 square kilometers, the entire Pate area is full of precious gifts of natural resources like hills, greenery, waterfalls, rivers, minerals. The Tibetan camp at Manpat, the Buddhist temple and the unique climate make the famous hill station Shimla feel. Mainpat has 20 to 25 fascinating and amazing tourist points, which attract tourists. Tourist points here include Tiger Point, Mehta Point, Fish Point, King Point, Parpatia View, Buddhist Temple and amazing inverted water and water.