3 months on, houses in Jalandhar's Lohian village still submerged

Deepkamal Kaur

Shahkot (Jalandhar), Oct 15

Even as three months have passed since the floods hit Lohian in the district, several houses in villages near points where breaches had occurred are still surrounded by water.

Since the river waters have inundated fields around the breaches, these remain submerged under 10-12 feet of water even now and there is no hope that these will dry out anytime soon. With the Sutlej flowing about a kilometre away from such waterlogged areas, there is little chance to pump out the water.

Jasvir Kaur, whose house was right in front of the point where a 950-foot breach had occurred, showed how it was still surrounded from all sides by water. “We came home recently and there was still a lot of water even in our verandahs. We had to live in a rented accommodation for three months in Lohian. We were able to return home but that too after a team of Rajya Sabha MP Balbir Singh Seechewal got the water from my house pumped out. They also helped us contruct a raised passage for entry to our house,” she said.

Similarly, Munshi and other residents of Dhakka Basti area said that their houses were completely damaged and all their belongings lost, but they did not get any compensation. “Worse is that for the past three months, we are still commuting on boats as the water level is not going down,” he added.

Likewise, Joginder Singh, a farmer of Mundi Shehrian village, said that he too had got no compensation for the loss of crop and cracks which had appeared in his house.

Salwinder Singh of Mandala Chhana village said that Rs 6,800 per acre compensation, which he had got, was too less.

Meanwhile, several farmers whose fields have got dried out were also seen removing sand and preparing their fields for the next crop.