It has become a daily sight on the visual media and also to read connected stories in the print media that focus on the woes of the people in the continuing fury of the monsoon. Water logging and landslides, resulting in traffic chaos have become the order of the day.
This evening, saw the sad plight of a mother-daughter duo in Kainakiri, in the Kuttanad region whose house had collapsed due to the onrush of flood waters thanks to a breach in one of the numerous embankments that control the ingress/egress of water into the paddy fields. They were poised to visit the elderly lady's daughter working abroad, who's the sole breadwinner of the family, sometime later in the month.
Their passports and other vital documents have been washed away! One can imagine the tremendous pressure that they would be going through. I hope that some good Samaritan in the area helps the old lady and her daughter to get a new set of travel documents from the concerned authorities within the available time frame with no financial loss. Otherwise, the old lady must get in touch with Sushma Swaraj, the Minister of External Affairs, at the earliest and everything will fall in place.
Coming back to the general plight of those whose houses get submerged in the rainwater. It's miserable when dirty water along with the muck that floats around 24x7, keeping the inmates continuously wet and in perpetual difficulty in easing themselves in the normal course. The accompanying stench coupled with the steady deterioration of the personal effects along with the furniture and other costly items that have been acquired over the years, become extremely heart wrenching and painful!
Once the rains stop, the flood water takes time to recede. Cleaning up the entire house would take days, perhaps even requiring a fresh coat of paint of the entire house and the disposal of the items that have been rendered useless to be substituted with new ones take up a lot of time, involving heavy expenses. The stench continues to prevail despite the best of efforts at cleaning. And I'm not even talking about the houses that need extensive repairs due to the damages caused by the deluge!
I'm not quite aware about the dynamics of the compensation that the government provides during such occasions to the distraught families but suffice to understand that the procedures to go about it can be extremely cumbersome with the corrupt officials taking their pound of flesh, while registering the complaint or when it comes to assessing the compensation. It's a vicious circle and my earnest request, to the Collector and the revenue authorities, is that they must ensure that the affected people's agony is not prolonged and their nightmare, eliminated at the earliest.
Tailpiece.
1. Kainakiri is my late grandmother's - G Chempakakutty Amma(Mrs. PN Panicker) - ancestral village and hence, my affinity to the place and concern to the people who dwell there..
2. I have always wondered as to how the people living in the low lying areas tide over these trying times because such a grim situation visits them twice a year - in Kerala, that is - during the monsoons?
This evening, saw the sad plight of a mother-daughter duo in Kainakiri, in the Kuttanad region whose house had collapsed due to the onrush of flood waters thanks to a breach in one of the numerous embankments that control the ingress/egress of water into the paddy fields. They were poised to visit the elderly lady's daughter working abroad, who's the sole breadwinner of the family, sometime later in the month.
Their passports and other vital documents have been washed away! One can imagine the tremendous pressure that they would be going through. I hope that some good Samaritan in the area helps the old lady and her daughter to get a new set of travel documents from the concerned authorities within the available time frame with no financial loss. Otherwise, the old lady must get in touch with Sushma Swaraj, the Minister of External Affairs, at the earliest and everything will fall in place.
Coming back to the general plight of those whose houses get submerged in the rainwater. It's miserable when dirty water along with the muck that floats around 24x7, keeping the inmates continuously wet and in perpetual difficulty in easing themselves in the normal course. The accompanying stench coupled with the steady deterioration of the personal effects along with the furniture and other costly items that have been acquired over the years, become extremely heart wrenching and painful!
Once the rains stop, the flood water takes time to recede. Cleaning up the entire house would take days, perhaps even requiring a fresh coat of paint of the entire house and the disposal of the items that have been rendered useless to be substituted with new ones take up a lot of time, involving heavy expenses. The stench continues to prevail despite the best of efforts at cleaning. And I'm not even talking about the houses that need extensive repairs due to the damages caused by the deluge!
I'm not quite aware about the dynamics of the compensation that the government provides during such occasions to the distraught families but suffice to understand that the procedures to go about it can be extremely cumbersome with the corrupt officials taking their pound of flesh, while registering the complaint or when it comes to assessing the compensation. It's a vicious circle and my earnest request, to the Collector and the revenue authorities, is that they must ensure that the affected people's agony is not prolonged and their nightmare, eliminated at the earliest.
Tailpiece.
1. Kainakiri is my late grandmother's - G Chempakakutty Amma(Mrs. PN Panicker) - ancestral village and hence, my affinity to the place and concern to the people who dwell there..
2. I have always wondered as to how the people living in the low lying areas tide over these trying times because such a grim situation visits them twice a year - in Kerala, that is - during the monsoons?
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