By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
A day after Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami decided to ban new constructions and settlements at all vulnerable areas close to rivers and streams, experts on Tuesday asked him to implement the Uttarakhand Floodplain Zoning Act, 2012 in toto.
Under the Act, the notification for which was issued on Jan 28, 2013, the floodplains have been defined as water channels, flood channels and low areas which are susceptible to floods by inundation. The floodplain zoning means restricting any human activity in the floodplains of a river where the plains are created by overflow of water from the channels of rivers and streams.
“This Act should be implemented in its true spirit to mitigate the sufferings in any Dharali-like future calamities,” said Alok Jain the former chief secretary of Uttarakhand. This is on top of the Environment Ministry’s declaration of Bhagirathi river being an eco-sensitive zone from Gaumukh to Uttarkashi in 2012, Jain said.
According to a rough estimate, hundreds of new constructions and structures mushroomed after the Floodplain zoning Act was passed in 2012.
The Floodplain Zoning Act stipulates that a survey be made of a river for the purpose of determining the limits within which the provisions of this Act are to be applied and that proper charts and registers be prepared specifying all boundaries and landmarks and any other matter necessary for the purpose of ascertaining such limits.
The State Government may on the basis of a report from the Flood Zoning Authority or otherwise, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare its intention to demarcate the flood plain areas and either prohibit or restrict the use of land therein.
Supporting the Act, H P Uniyal, former Director state planning commission also said the government must take all steps to stop encroachments along rivers especially in the floodplains.