NEW DELHI: “My sister is visually impaired. At around 8:00 am we heard neighbours screaming -- Jaldi ghar se bhar niklo, bhago, niklo (leave your home, run, go). They said a tree has fell and rain water was gushing towards our house. We had just reached a small distance from our house, when it was swept away. A minute late and we would have died,” said Guddi.
About 50 residents of Anna Nagar, a slum cluster situated along a drain near ITO intersection, had a narrow escape when their dwellings collapsed after portion of drain wall caved in due to heavy flow of water.
Guddi, 45, has been staying in the slum clusters of Anna Nagar for last four years. “I’ve been living here since I was a child but never seen something like this. Whatever savings we had, were swept away,” she said, adding that some local leaders have proving them with food and financial help.”
“We are left with nothing but I am thankful to the people who alerted us on time and no one died,” said another resident.Most of the residents living in the colony work as daily labourers and those who lost their homes were mostly working in at the construction site of the nearby WHO building. 200 residents have now been shifted to a temporary accommodation by the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) team. They are being provided with bed, toilet facility, fans and food by NDRF and Delhi government’s rescue team.
“The ITO road, where water logging happened, is under the jurisdiction of PWD.Temporary sheds were erected alomg the SDMC Drain No. 12 and being used by the labourers,” said SDMC officials.
Praveen Kumar, the AAP MLA from Jangpura, provided a compensation of I25,000 to each family whose house collapsed in the rain. Deshmukh said, “As soon the incident took place, we got in touch with the SDM and visited the area to access the condition. 10 houses caved in and 40 people were evacuated. They are being provided food and ration.”
Bharatiya Janata Youth Manch (BJYM) leader Impreet Singh Bakshi and his team also arranged fans, food and water for the displaced people on Monday.
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