M A I N   N E W S

Marooned and neglected, these villages are in distress
Geetanjali Gayatri
Tribune News Service

Ambala city MLA Venod Sharma inspects a partially washed away road in Chhapra village, Ambala, on Saturday. Tribune photo: Nitin Mittal

Ambala, July 10
“Sri Lanka” is virtually marooned. Well, almost so. But before you think international, our Sri Lanka is just 40 km from Ambala city. It is a conglomeration of 12 villages, which have been cut off since the floods have hit Ambala.

Locally referred to as Sri Lanka, these villages are called so because they are completely disassociated from Ambala, lie beyond a patch of Kurukshetra and fall in the Ambala city assembly segment after the recent delimitation exercise.

Even as the flood waters have started receding, these villages are still waist-high in water and a 12,000-strong population is watching helplessly from their homes, waiting for the levels to go down further, waiting to see the road that once connected their homes to the rest of Haryana, watching and praying the skies won’t open up again and their “house arrest” will end.

Though the homes are free of water now, the water flooding the fields and the roads which have gone under it are keeping the villagers indoors unless it is absolutely necessary to wade out for work. After all, in every home there are hungry mouths to feed.

A daily wager, Sumer Chand of Kathgarh, has dared to venture out of his home into the waters despite the threat of snakes because he needs to work to earn two square meals a day.

“The flood has come as a double whammy for poor people like us. On the one hand, all our belongings are drenched and on the other hand we have run out of money to fill our stomachs,” he explains.

Across a river of water, from a house, veiled women look on expectantly, maybe for relief, as a small group of sarpanches of surrounding villages gathers around local MLA Venod Sharma to voice its concerns over the grim flood situation.

Sharma, who has been extensively touring his constituency to lend a sympathetic ear to the public since the floods have struck, after hearing them out, says, “The situation is very bad in these villages. They are ravaged by floods every year and have been neglected in the past. For the first time, these are a part of my constituency and I want to find a permanent solution to this chronic flooding that happens every year.”

Chapra sarpanch Saroj Bala is represented by her husband Angrez Singh, who recounts the horror of the day the waters rose. “The rain began around 2.30 pm. While the water level began rising by evening, it was only after 6 pm that we realised the gravity of the situation when are homes began to flood. We immediately moved eatables to the top floor and our cattle to homes at a higher level. The night was scarier, as if help would never come. Now, 40-odd villagers walk through the water to look for odd jobs outside,” he explains.

The landowners are worried about the fate of their paddy plantation, which stands completely submerged. There are others worried about fodder for their milch cattle and still many others who are concerned about an epidemic breakout which seems imminent as they stand in the midst of water.

Nobody knows when their travail will end, not even if it will end at all. The rushing water, however, does surge ahead with one promise - that what comes, goes too. Maybe this too shall pass.