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Ready for Tibet lake breach: Himachal CM

Onkar Singh in Shimla | August 13, 2004 20:33 IST

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Friday said the state is ready to meet any situation if the flooded artificial lake in Tibet gave way.

Four years ago in a similar incident more then 200 people were killed and a number of villages destroyed when Parchu River in Tibet overflowed into the state.

"We have been monitoring the situation on minute-to-minute basis and the entire administration has been deployed to meet any eventuality in case the contigency does arise. We had a bit of contingency when there was a cloud brust in Jeoli Khana near the Naptha Jakhari power project between Kullu and Rampur on Friday morning. Two Nepali labourers were washed away," Singh told rediff.com.

The state government has appointed a Crisis Management Group headed by Chief Secretary Shamsher Singh to keep an eye on the developments in Tibet and take preventive measures to avoid largescale damage.

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Chinese officials on Thursday had said the natural dam formed in the lake had breached. Several reports had said the Chinese side had made controlled explosions to breach the dam.

"We keep on getting inputs on regular basis. Sometime the information is reliable and sometimes it is wrong. As of now while I am talking to you I can tell you that the water discharge from Parchu River is normal. I am going strictly by the information available to me. What would happen next I cannot say," he said.

Asked how long the present situation would continue, Singh said, "I cannot say whether the threat of floods would be over by Saturday or Sunday. We expect the water to flow down from the artifical lake sooner or later. It could happen today or it could happen ten days later."

According the the figures available with the Himachal government the lake is spread over an area of 1800 hectres and is at least 45 feet deep.



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