For flood-hit victims, footpaths new abode in Yamuna Bazar

For 30-year-old Munish, an e-rickshaw driver, a wall and footpath alongside the Outer Ring Road in Yamuna Bazar is his temporary abode after the Yamuna’s swollen waters entered his house as well as makeshift tents in the area near Nigambodh Ghat.

The situation is not different from that of other people, who have nowhere to go after their houses, which lie in the floodplains of the Yamuna, were taken back by the river.

When The Tribune correspondent visited the place alongside the Outer Ring Road in the Nigambodh Ghat area, several teams of the NDRF along with boats and other equipment used for rescue operations were deployed and people were seen blocking the road that leads to the interiors of the Yamuna Bazar area to stop the water from advancing further.

Munish said he has two foldable bunks on which his wife and children sleep while he sleeps on the footpath.

On moving forward, some people were seen sleeping on the footpath too. “We have nowhere to go, we simply sleep on the footpath. The tents are few and some are already waterlogged,” said Sitaram, who works in the nearby Chandni Chowk market and was carrying an old-fashioned suitcase having clothes and some important documents.

Another family of a daily-wage worker, Sukhiram, has made a small tent-like structure with plastic sheets and is living in it with his family. “What should we do, where should we go? Some people have shifted to the house of their relatives, while some have gone to their villages, but we have nowhere to go as our house has been flooded,” he added. They cook on the road, eat there and live there.

“When it rains, we shift to a nearby subway where already some families are living,” said Imli, another resident. She mentioned that the ration in their houses has been destroyed by the floods. When the water recedes, they will be left without grains.

“Now, the government and some NGOs are helping us. Once the situation becomes normal and we shift to our houses, how long will it take for our lives to get back on track is what I wonder,” she added.