Uttarakhand flood survivor speaks out: D P Goswami
WildFilmsIndia
2013-07-26
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Uttarakhand flood survivor speaks out: D P Goswami
He says " You can see the scene of total devastation at my home. I live in Badrinath and I own a shop there. On the 16th when the disastrous floods came from above, we heard that the Gandhi Sarovar lake and Basuki Taal had burst which caused so much devastation in our area. I think our government is responsible for so much of the devastation. The river you see, was 40 feet down and today it has destroyed 2 floors of my house. I built this house 3 years ago. I had ordered this special makrana stone from Jaipur which cost Rs 180 per square feet.
The ground floor of the house is totally drowned. My 2 brothers live in this house. The ground floor belonged to me and other 2 live in the floors above me. On the 16th when the floods came, my child and my mother were alone in the house. I spoke to my child around 10 in the morning he told me "Daddy our house is totally drowned in water. What should we do". I told them to run out from the house. After the 16th I could not contact anyone from my house, I thought I had lost all my relatives. My brother, who owned a shop in Gauri kund also got swept away. Everything got destroyed. We had built our house with a lot of effort. All the household goods and our belongings got swept away. You can see all these are totally broken and other things have been destroyed inside as well. I got the news that my house hadbeen submerged in water, on the 18th. The water had reached the second floor of my house and water was flowing from the ceiling. My brothers and I built this house with a lot of effort. The 8 feet long iron rods are still holding this house together. Down below we had a big garden where we used to grow vegetables and the river was 20 feet further below the garden. Now the government is providing the 3 of us (my brothers and me) with a meagre amount of Rs 1 Lakh. We want to tell the government that my brothers had served in the Indian Army. Why is the government rubbing salt on our wounds. We are willing to pay them Rs 1 Lakh so that it can be of help to others. Why are we getting such a low amount? The government is providing Rs 2 lakhs to each and everyone in the market. All those who say that my house is fine, I invite them to come and stay here for 2 days and then they will get to know whether we are safe in this house or not. We do not belong to a TV channel or a political party. We only have one concern and that is that adequate money should be given for our genuine loss. They are giving people they know cheques of Rs 2 lakhs or 4 lakhs. 2 people living under the same house are getting Rs 2 lakhs each for their damage. They are willing to provide Rs 2 Lakhs for a single room but only 1 lakh for our 3 floor house with 3 families. I will give you an example. If a 10 floor building in Dehradun has people from different states - Chennai, Madras, Tamil Nadu, living in different floors and God forbid, if any calamity takes place, will the government only provide money for the people of Madras and not to the people of other states. That time the policy of the government will change but not in my case. Now the government says that within 60 days all the houses on the riverside will be destroyed. If you have to destroy the houses, first do it in the riverside houses of Haridwar, Rishikesh. Never do they trouble any of the big people and we have to suffer in these cases. They should make a Punarvas Yojna (rehabilitation scheme) if they are destroying our houses. They should check on the waste material of the L&T (Larson & Toubro, a large Indian construction Company) . Where is their dumping zone? Because of the dumping zone being on the riverside we are facing this problem today. Companies like L&T who have been digging up the mountains in the name of electricity generation should concentrate on making a dumping zone. If a proper dumping zone was there, the condition today would have not been so bad. The river has been flowing till the second floor of my house. I do not want to say anything more on this. You people are the representatives of the government and you will be taking their side. Our district magistrate has not even visited once to see the miserable condition of our homes. He did not show the courtesy to visit even once. Our request to them was to just come and look at our houses and give us funds for our genuine loss. There used to be a bridge here, which the people on the other side used for daily commuting. We have made a trolley for them so that they can commute through it to get basic necessities".
© Wilderness Films India Ltd.
He says " You can see the scene of total devastation at my home. I live in Badrinath and I own a shop there. On the 16th when the disastrous floods came from above, we heard that the Gandhi Sarovar lake and Basuki Taal had burst which caused so much devastation in our area. I think our government is responsible for so much of the devastation. The river you see, was 40 feet down and today it has destroyed 2 floors of my house. I built this house 3 years ago. I had ordered this special makrana stone from Jaipur which cost Rs 180 per square feet.
The ground floor of the house is totally drowned. My 2 brothers live in this house. The ground floor belonged to me and other 2 live in the floors above me. On the 16th when the floods came, my child and my mother were alone in the house. I spoke to my child around 10 in the morning he told me "Daddy our house is totally drowned in water. What should we do". I told them to run out from the house. After the 16th I could not contact anyone from my house, I thought I had lost all my relatives. My brother, who owned a shop in Gauri kund also got swept away. Everything got destroyed. We had built our house with a lot of effort. All the household goods and our belongings got swept away. You can see all these are totally broken and other things have been destroyed inside as well. I got the news that my house hadbeen submerged in water, on the 18th. The water had reached the second floor of my house and water was flowing from the ceiling. My brothers and I built this house with a lot of effort. The 8 feet long iron rods are still holding this house together. Down below we had a big garden where we used to grow vegetables and the river was 20 feet further below the garden. Now the government is providing the 3 of us (my brothers and me) with a meagre amount of Rs 1 Lakh. We want to tell the government that my brothers had served in the Indian Army. Why is the government rubbing salt on our wounds. We are willing to pay them Rs 1 Lakh so that it can be of help to others. Why are we getting such a low amount? The government is providing Rs 2 lakhs to each and everyone in the market. All those who say that my house is fine, I invite them to come and stay here for 2 days and then they will get to know whether we are safe in this house or not. We do not belong to a TV channel or a political party. We only have one concern and that is that adequate money should be given for our genuine loss. They are giving people they know cheques of Rs 2 lakhs or 4 lakhs. 2 people living under the same house are getting Rs 2 lakhs each for their damage. They are willing to provide Rs 2 Lakhs for a single room but only 1 lakh for our 3 floor house with 3 families. I will give you an example. If a 10 floor building in Dehradun has people from different states - Chennai, Madras, Tamil Nadu, living in different floors and God forbid, if any calamity takes place, will the government only provide money for the people of Madras and not to the people of other states. That time the policy of the government will change but not in my case. Now the government says that within 60 days all the houses on the riverside will be destroyed. If you have to destroy the houses, first do it in the riverside houses of Haridwar, Rishikesh. Never do they trouble any of the big people and we have to suffer in these cases. They should make a Punarvas Yojna (rehabilitation scheme) if they are destroying our houses. They should check on the waste material of the L&T (Larson & Toubro, a large Indian construction Company) . Where is their dumping zone? Because of the dumping zone being on the riverside we are facing this problem today. Companies like L&T who have been digging up the mountains in the name of electricity generation should concentrate on making a dumping zone. If a proper dumping zone was there, the condition today would have not been so bad. The river has been flowing till the second floor of my house. I do not want to say anything more on this. You people are the representatives of the government and you will be taking their side. Our district magistrate has not even visited once to see the miserable condition of our homes. He did not show the courtesy to visit even once. Our request to them was to just come and look at our houses and give us funds for our genuine loss. There used to be a bridge here, which the people on the other side used for daily commuting. We have made a trolley for them so that they can commute through it to get basic necessities".
© Wilderness Films India Ltd.
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