Pune landslide: Maha govt to help set up mobile towers in remote areas

Taking lessons from the Pune landslide incident, the Maharashtra government has decided to provide financial aid to the private telecom companies for setting up mobile towers in the tribal and remote villages across the state for the effective communication during such natural calamities. “In all the tribal and remote villages across the state, financial aid will be given to private telecom companies through tribal development department to set up the mobile towers,” said Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and lauded the efforts of the administration and NDRF. The decision was taken in a state cabinet meeting held on Wednesday morning. [caption id=“attachment_1653085” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. PTI[/caption] So far, 152 dead bodies have been recovered from the debris of the Malin landslide incident. The rescue and relief work is in the final stage, he added. “The government will prepare a draft rehabilitation plan of the Malin village and will rehabilitate the village with higher standards. Also, landslide prone villages will be rehabilitated after carrying out extensive survey of such villages across the state,” Chavan said. In the Malin landslide incident, there was no mobile network in the area due to the remoteness of the village and it hampered rescue and relief work. “The authorities, who reached the spot first, could not connect with their higher-ups or with control room immediately. That delayed rescue operations. Had there been mobile connectivity in the area, we could have saved some more lives through effective communication,” said Dhananjay Kokane, president of the Nisarg Sahas Sanstha, a non-governmental organisation working in the region. He added that a private telecom company had stationed a mobile tower van in the area to help to get connectivity in last few days. However, Chavan dismissed the allegations that ‘Padkai’ scheme is the cause behind the landslide incident. Earlier, it was alleged by environmentalists that the massive deforestation and leveling off land on hill slopes to create cultivable plots in the region had caused the landslide.