Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu on Monday appealed to the people of the state, especially those living along river banks, streams and landslide prone areas to take precautionary measures to meet any eventuality.
Expressing grief and concern over the loss of lives due to landslides in the state capital triggered by incessant rainfall for several days, Khandu said that monsoon related disasters can be avoided to a large extent if one respects nature and uses common sense while building houses.
“It pains my heart to get information of loss of lives every year during monsoons. My heart goes out to the departed souls and survivors, who are mostly near and dear ones. As I pray for eternal peace for the departed souls, I reiterate that such disasters can be avoided if we respect nature and use common sense in building houses, earth-cutting and blocking natural flow of streams and rivulets,” Khandu said in a message this evening.
Khandu said that the district administration has identified and earmarked buildings as temporary relief camps and people in vulnerable places may either shift there to other places till the situation returns to normalcy.
The chief minister assured that ex-gratia to the deceased and relief to the injured will be provided by the government as per norms.
As per reports, at least five persons lost their lives and six got injured in two separate incidents of landslides in Itanagar since Sunday.
The deceased have been identified as Nagen Barman (40) and Tapas Roy (15), Tai Yai (45) and Teg Bahadur Sonar (52).
The body of one Kusum Roy (35) is yet to be retrieved.
The Itanagar Capital Region administration has designated the government higher secondary school at ESS sector here, the government middle school at Kankarnallah, Naharlagun and Nikum Niya Hall at Banderdewa, as temporary relief camps.
The people have been asked to call tollfree No 1077 or 878-7336331 and 9436415828 in case of any eventuality.
