Uttarakhand's flood-affected criticise lack of relief

Unlike rest of the country, Uttarakhand is not eager about the monsoon. A spell of rain no longer brings cheer to rootless survivors in their own native places, but spreads horror. Similarly, a gush of roaring wind results in alarm and sleepless nights ahead.

Moods of weather have acquired different meanings for shocked residents at the higher reaches of the flood-devastated hilly state of Uttarakhand, says Hira Singh Rana, a resident of Barangana village in Chamoli district, who is witnessing nature’s wrath and battling the state administration’s incompetence to help people.

More than 20 km away, in Chaunda village, BTech graduate Kamal shares a similar tale. Young Rana and Kamal narrated tales of human miseries to Deccan Herald, especially the fear that has engulfed the hapless locals struggling to live after the June 16 disaster.

And tragedy came knocking again when, due to landslides and rains that took place less than a week ago, about 15 villages near Joshimath were washed away. With the region reduced to destruction, Rana says, the villagers lucky to have survived are being fed and helped by locals because relief from the state administration has become like a sunny day few and far between.

“Some of the homeless have found shelter in government buildings such as panchayat homes and schools spared by nature’s fury. Others have got hold of tents, little realising that they cannot withstand extreme weather. And thoughtless distribution of raw food material like flour, rice, pulses and spices in packets continues in patches. But, that’s how governments have managed every disaster,” he chides. Rana says he feels blessed to have survived along with his family, a fortune he sees as the outcome of philanthropic services he rendered for a few years at a Varanasi-based social-cum-religious organisation named Sarveshwari Samooh Kusta Seva Ashram, which figures in the Guinness World Records for treating the maximum number of leprosy patients globally.

Sharing some of the mental trauma, Rana narrated an incident of July 7. “Due to heavy rain, close to 100-200 people residing in villages near the river in the Chamoli area never slept a wink, fearing for their lives.”