Residents of Uttarakhand's Joshimath have threatened to boycott the Lok Sabha elections if the state government continues to ignore their problems arising out of land subsidence.

They have submitted a 15-point demand to the government and said the repair work should start before April 19 when Uttarakhand is scheduled to vote in the first phase. Joshimath falls under the Garhwal parliamentary seat.

Bhuvan Uniyal, president of the newly formed Mool Nivasi Swabhiman Sangathan, an association of permanent residents of Joshimath, said: “We had submitted a memorandum to the local administrative officers last week but no action was taken to repair the damage and start the treatment of the hills."

“Later, some government officers told us that we should accept the compensation for the damaged houses and leave the area. They fail to understand that most of the original residents whose houses were damaged during the incidents of land subsidence also have their small agricultural fields here. They don’t want to be uprooted from here. The outsider traders can easily shift their businesses and household establishment to some other area but we cannot do this,” Uniyal said.

He added that the association had sent a letter to the state government stating they would not participate in the election if their problems were not solved soon.

Between December 27 and January 8, the Joshimath town sank by 5.4cm and 2,363 houses developed cracks.

The government had said 931 houses would be retrofitted and 472 reconstructed in line with the “Build Back Better” principle. The owners of these houses were asked to temporarily shift somewhere else and the rest were told to leave the place permanently. Many residents refused the government’s offer of compensation against their houses. They claimed it was the government’s ploy to remove them from the area and hand it over to corporate entities because it was an important tourist and pilgrimage spot.

State disaster management secretary Ranjit Sinha had told reporters a few months ago that the process to repair the area would start soon.

“The Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority is looking for agencies to survey the houses and restore them. The work will start soon,” he had told reporters in Dehradun.

He had also said that the hills would be treated to prevent any major landslide or subsidence. The town was earmarked as a “No New Construction Zone”.

“Construction work is still going on here but nobody is ready to listen to us. This suggests that the government has a secret plan,” said Rajesh Negi, a resident.

Atul Sati, the convener of the Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, told The Telegraph over the phone: “There is nothing on the ground to prevent further loss or repair the damage and there is no hope of any work in the near future. Even a detailed project report (DPR) is not ready. Since the model code of conduct for elections is in force now, they will also not be able to release any funds. Once the repair starts, it will take years to complete.”

“The government has earmarked many residential areas as danger zones but the office of the National Thermal Power Corporation or army establishments, which were separated from the civil area by a thin wall, were considered fit to live. This raises suspicion in the minds of the residents,” Sati said. He confirmed that some construction work by the army and other government departments was underway.

“We are in the process of hiring an agency to make a DPR. Work can be started after the Lok Sabha elections. State-level officers are keeping a watch on the situation,” said an officer of the State Disaster Management Authority on the condition of anonymity.