Landslide victims helpless after losing homes and jobs
NDRF personnel rescue a resident from a flood-affected area, in Mandi, on Friday. Pic/PTI
“Death would have better than going through this nightmare with nowhere to go and no shoulder to cry on,” says Promila who lost everything when her house crumbled in a landslide here.
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A landslide in the morning of August 23 damaged a building near Indira Gandhi Medical College Hospital (IGMCH) where Promila stayed with her ailing mother.
No place to sleep
Narrating her plight to PTI on Friday, she said, “I live with my 75-year-old mother who is suffering from ovarian cancer and has been undergoing treatment since 2016. I also lost my job as a sales girl in a shop in Ram Nagar in the city market last week due to the recession as there were no customers.
“I slept at IGMCH on Thursday night as there is no place to go,” says Promila, who does not have siblings, or a father, and is also separated from her husband. “I am desperately looking for a job and am willing to even clean and sweep as I am in dire need of money for my mother’s treatment,” she says before adding, “My mother is all I have.”
She has studied up to Std X.
“We could not salvage our belongings and the only thing left is the clothes we were wearing while running out of the collapsed house,” says another landslide victim Suman whose room was adjacent to Promila’s.
Suman, who works as a domestic help, says she has lost everything in the landslide and that she has no money to even pay her son’s school fees. She said they have no shelter now.
Allegation of apathy
“Our plight is miserable but it did not attract the attention of the authorities as no casualty was reported in this landslide. What is the use of getting so many donations, if the state government cannot help the disaster victims,” Suman says.
“We had food at a gurdwara and are shuttling between our relatives’ houses, but we have not received any help or immediate relief,” she adds.
June 24
Day monsoon arrived in Himachal Pradesh
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