Month after floods, house collapse forces villagers to sleep in the open

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, August 30

A month after the floods wreaked havoc in Shahkot and Lohian areas of Jalandhar, several villagers are forced to spend nights in the open or even on dhussi bundhs because the floodwaters have rendered their homes uninhabitable.

The collapse of at least 36 houses (32 at Dhakka Basti and four at Chak Wadala village in Lohian) is formally known, but villagers say the total number of houses which are unfit to live in is much more. Farm leaders as well as home owners themselves say they have not received any compensation so far for the damage caused to their properties. Farm leader Salwinder Singh Jania said 36 houses were washed away at Dhakka Basti and Chak Wadala and countless other damages took place due to which people were forced to put up at bundhs or in camps even a month after floods.

Chak Wadala resident Pritam Kaur (60) has been sleeping in the open for the past one month after both rooms of her house developed huge cracks. Her husband Pritam, a son and a daughter sleep in the open under the tarpaulin. She says, “Four of us lived in one room. My elder son, who is married, lived with his wife in the second room. Both the rooms have developed cracks and are on the brink of collapse since July 7-8 when the waters came. We have kept our belongings inside but are afraid to go in fearing the roof will fall on our head. My husband is also unwell. A cow and a buffalo have also been accommodated outside. So far, no government official has come to assess the loss.”

Jagtar Singh, a resident of Chak Wadala in Lohian, whose house also developed cracks, says, “Not four, our village has 9 to 10 houses which have collapsed due to the floods. Four of them were literally washed away but 9 to 10 have been rendered uninhabitable. There are many more such unknown dwellings. Many houses have several feet long gaping cracks in the walls and their ground (floor) has buckled. It is impossible for such families to live inside for fear of the roof caving in. For the past one month, my own family is living in one room as our second room has developed cracks and isn’t fit to live in. But no government compensation has come so far.”

Jagtar said he wasn’t compensated for his dead buffalo which (tied on the bundh) was strangled on its own chain after it fled to a side, fearing a trolley.

“The CM said even the loss of a goat will be compensated. But officials don’t count cattle deaths, several days after the floods, as losses. If my house was sound, my cattle would be tied at home. Floods claimed its life.”