Let-up in rains, govt steps up relief...

Nightmare for Goudur villagers

The people started feeling wet under their feet in their bedrooms and kitchens of their thatched muddy houses around 2 am on Thursday. By the time they could pick up their belongings water had already entered their homes to a height of two feet. There was no question of any further delay and they immediately started moving out. They had to traverse by foot for about 6 km to reach Kollur (M) on the Gulbarga-Raichur main road. In between them they had to struggle through about half-a-dozen ‘dips’ (low-lying bridges) brimming with water up to chest level! Taking kids on their shoulders and the aged and the sick in their arms they had to literally run to safer places. By the time they reached the main road the entire village was submerged in the rising Krishna waters.

“We don’t how we came out of our village. We were virtually on the threshold of death. Fortunately we could resist it,’’ remarked Mahadeva, who had to carry with him his wife and five children. “In the ‘dips’ there was water up to chest level and in the cover of darkness we did not even know the right path, although we are familiar with it.’’ Mahadeva also drove his two oxen leaving behind two cows. They were shifted to the school building at Shahapur where gruel centres were waiting for them. Finally they started moving back to Goudur on Sunday after water had started receding.

Danger at doorsteps

Goudur is about a km away from the river Krishna. They were never forced to leave their village in their lifetime. The 70 plus old Yenkavva said, “In the past whenever there were floods it was just a touch and go. Water had never entered into our houses. But this time the death in the form of flood was at our doorsteps. And we had to fight it out.’’

The entire Goudur village comprising about 120 houses, most of thatched ones, was deserted on the nearly fateful Thursday. Whatever grains, eatables, and other materials they had stored in the houses have been swept away by the flood waters. Some people were able to pick up whatever they could lay their hands on and stored them in the Mailaralingeshwara Temple.

For Devendrappa and Ramappa Natikar, whose houses have been fully collapsed, the immediate need is their reconstruction. They are in need of roofing sheets and other materials to build up a shed like structure. “When we approached the tahsildar to provide us sheets and other materials to rebuild a makeshift structure he did not respond to our grievances. The tahsildar told us that he could not give anything to them unless DC saheb makes an order,’’ Ramappa Natikar rued.

For the people of Goudur another peculiar problem was that they have lost jowar stocks stored in the underground grannaries as they got opened inviting water into them. Every alternate house has an underground granary and for the first time in the history all of them are in ruins.

The story of Tonnur, Kollur, and surrounding villages is no different. However due to better road connectivity their miseries were reduced to some extent. The administration although has made arrangements for food it has not paid any immediate compensation for those who have lost everything. They are waiting the succour to come through and hope that it will not be an endless wait.