Bridges and roads have collapsed, with landslides blocking off parts of hilly Uttarakhand after record heavy rains. This has led to transportation costs spiralling in villages bordering China and Nepal, where locals are paying up to Rs 2,500 for an LPG cylinder. Many are not getting cooking gas even when they are ready to shell out the money.
In Pithoragarh, there are about 40 villages in the upper Himalayan valleys of Byas, Chaudas and Darma. Most have been affected. “The closest gas godown is at Dharchula, about 50km from here,” said Anju Ronkali, gram pradhan of Rongkong, a small village with about 120 people.
“The Dharchula godown is 120km from our village,” said Dharmendra Kutiyal, gram pradhan of Kuti. “A 14.2-kg cylinder costs Rs 922.50 at Dharchula. Taxis are charging Rs 1,200 to get each. They drop off the cylinders and then we have to pay porters to bring them up to our houses. The total cost comes to about Rs 2,500.”
Besides taxis charging more, another reason, locals said, is that bad roads don’t allow an uninterrupted taxi ride. “In some places, porters are getting cylinders for villages. They have to change taxis two or three times. It costs more,” said Jaman Datal, a farmer from Dantu village in Darma Valley.
In Chamoli, Niti and Mana have been hit hard by the rains. At Bampa, bordering China, there has been no LPG supply for a month now because the road leading up to it keeps getting blocked by landslides. “About a dozen villages around us are facing this,” said Dhamu Pal, a small business-owner who lives at Bampa. “There are at least 500-600 families in these villages who have been forced to survive without essentials.”
Here, too, locals now depend on taxi services to carry cylinders from nearby towns. “It’s not just gas,” said Pal. “Flour, vegetables and other essentials have also seen a price rise. Wheat would cost Rs 1-2 a kg at the ration shop. Because there are no stocks, it costs Rs 15 a kg now. Even for that, we have to travel at least 20km to the village nearby, Mallari.”
(TOI)
