DEHRADUN, JANUARY 9: Every minute is important, the Uttarakhand Chief Secretary said on Monday as more houses, buildings and roads developed cracks in the sinking town of Joshimath, red crosses came up on hundreds of unsafe structures and many residents stayed on despite the imminent danger.
The number of subsidence-affected homes rose to 678 while 27 more families were evacuated to safety, a bulletin from the Disaster Management Authority in Chamoli said, adding so far 82 families have been shifted to safe locations in the town.
Chief Secretary S S Sandhu held a meeting with officials at the state secretariat to review the situation in Joshimath and asked them to speed up the evacuation exercise to ensure the safety of residents as “every minute is important”.
