Kashmir Floods: 75 families putting up on Tengpora by-pass

SRINAGAR — Never would have Nazir Ahmad Dar of Tengpora imagined that he would have to spend days and nights in a makeshift tent on the pavement of the Srinagar-Baramulla Highway, but the devastating flood that hit Kashmir has for the time being made him homeless.

Dar, a businessman who few days back was renovating his three-storey house for the marriage of his daughter, is now living life in a tent at Tengpora here where only relief material distributed by local Mohalla committees is his sole way of feeding his family of five members.

“I could never have imagined such a catastrophe would hit us, but this flood has changed my whole thinking,” he said, adding that his house has been damaged and his business badly affected.

“Few days back, I had a house and a comfortable life but now today, my only prized possession is this tent,” he said.

Dar is not the only person living on the pavement at Tengpora, but more than 75 families belonging to different areas of Srinagar city have erected small tents in the middle of the pavement of the highway to provide shelter to their families.

Away from the comfort of their homes, these families are facing a plethora of problems from the shortage of drinking water to food. “Our families including male and female members are living on the road,” they said, adding that the flood was a nightmare for the whole of Kashmir which has shattered many lives and dreams, ‘but it is the collective efforts which will help us to revive.’

The families accuse the State government and authorities of not paying any heed to their pleas.

“We have not seen any government official or relief team who has come to this place so far. For the last two weeks, we have been living like beggars and nobody is coming to our help, barring the local Mohalla committee which came up with relief material,” said Jabeena, a resident of Padshahi Bagh, who is currently putting up in the makeshift tent along with her family.

Bashir Ahmad, a resident of Tengpora, recalls that after Jhelum water entered Tengpora and its adjoining areas with people were calling each other for help. “After surviving the flood waters, we erected makeshift tents on the highway, while our houses are still waterlogged,” he said.

The residents of Tengpora said that the government has failed to even dewater their area.