The Uttarakhand government on Tuesday began preparations to demolish buildings that have been damaged by subsidence in Joshimath, prompting several residents to allege that they were not consulted and launch a protest.

Over 1,000 people gathered on the Joshimath-Badrinath Highway in the evening, chanting slogans against the state’s BJP government.

They demanded compensation and a complete rehabilitation plan before their damaged houses are demolished.

The residents declared that they wouldn’t let the government bring down the buildings before their demands are met and that they would sit on a dharna wherever demolition begins.

“The walls and floor of my parental home had developed cracks over the past few days. I rushed to see it today from my in-laws’ home in Chamoli and found that a team was outside to plan how to raze the building,” said Rekha Devi, a middle-aged woman, earlier in the day.

“My two brothers and I spent our childhood here. You can see the medals and trophies kept in the wardrobes. They were won by my brothers’ children. Now the officers are saying that they will demolish the house in which the blood and sweat of my parents are mixed. Nobody asked us what we want before taking a decision that our house would be pulled down,” she said, crying and taking pictures of the house on her mobile phone.

The demolition of the first two buildings will start manually on Wednesday as the experts have advised against the use of bulldozers as they could damage the surrounding areas too.

Officials have said that Hotel Marali Inn and Hotel Mountain View will be the first to be brought down.

A total of 678 buildings have been identified for demolition and more could be razed if they developed cracks, the officials said. The two hotels off Joshimath-Kedarnath Highway had been 20ft apart but are now leaning on each other because the ground between them has sunk.

Their walls and the stretch of road in front have developed cracks. “We came to know from the media that we have to vacate our houses as they will be razed by the government.

Over two-dozen studies have been conducted on Joshimath in the past 20 years and every report suggested an immediate ban on the construction of multi-storey buildings and the use of heavy machines here.

Every report suggested an immediate ban on the construction of big power projects and tunnels, but the government ignored the warnings,” said Santosh Rawat, another local.

Chief minister and BJP leader Pushkar Singh Dhami said a team of experts was “surveying and assessing” the area and the houses which would be demolished.

“We will pay compensation to the residents who will be displaced. We are also at work to rehabilitate them at some other place. There is no need for them to worry,” he said.

Former chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said after visiting Joshimath on Tuesday: “A bigger challenge is to redevelop Joshimath after bringing down the buildings.”

Locals claim that a hydro-power project of the National Thermal Power Corporation and a tunnel under construction are behind the subsidence.

The residents allege that heavy equipment used for the projects had triggered a series of landslides over a month and led to buildings and roads developing cracks.

Swami Avimukteshwaranand, the Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath (Joshimath) who has filed a PIL in the Supreme Court seeking its intervention, said: “The government’s steps till date are anti-people. It should have avoided bringing in companies like the NTPC with such mega projects. We know for decades that Jyotirmath is sitting on the weakest rocks of the Himalayas.”

A fissure runs through an indoor badminton court at Joshimath in Uttarakhand. The town has been declared a disaster-prone area after large cracks appeared in homes and on roads. Over a thousand people converged at the Joshimath-Badrinath Highway on Tuesday evening, chanting slogans against the BJP government and demanding compensation and a detailed rehabilitation plan before their damaged houses were demolished. The residents said they would not let the government bring down the buildings before their demands were met. PTI picture