As Uttarakhand has been facing flash floods and landslides caused by heavy rainfall for the past few days, people living in Kalyani View area of Rudrapur district on Thursday spoke about the difficulties they were facing.
Speaking to ANI, Sikander, a local resident of Kalyani View said, "Our houses were brimming with water, but no one has come to help us since then. We only know how we saved the lives of our children when suddenly our houses filled with water at night."
Fatima, another local resident said that everything was destroyed in the area when flood water reached here at night on October 18. "When flood water entered our houses at night, I immediately helped everyone to come out of the house and saved everybody's life at my place. The furniture and infrastructure are also destroyed at my house. Now we are surviving on food of Rs 10 or 20 only."
She further expressed her disappointment over the indifference of people who did not help them. "No one has come to look for us. No one has helped us since the day the situation arose in our area," she added.
Jogendra, another local resident said, "I have been living on the roads from many years. However, from the past three years, all the poor people are here on the road. People even do not have food to eat. But no one has come to help us, neither the chairman not the MLA."
The death-toll in the rain-battered Uttarakhand has mounted to 64 and more than 11 people have been reported missing so far. A total of 19 people have sustained injuries in various incidents while five are still reported missing.
Damage to properties has also been recorded in Uttarakhand following incessant rains. As many as 46 houses have either been damaged partially or completely, as per the report.
Earlier today, Union Home Minister Amit Shah conducted an aerial survey of the rain-affected areas of the state and said that no tourist casualty has been reported in the state so far and the Char Dham Yatra has also been resumed.
"As many as 3,500 people were rescued and more than 16,000 precautionary evacuations were done in the state. 17 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams, 7 State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams, 15 companies of Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) and more than 5,000 police personnel are deployed for the rescue operations," Shah said.
The Home Minister added that normalcy is returning in the state gradually. "Roads have been cleared in Nainital, Almora and Haldwani. Power stations will also resume operations soon. The mobile network has been restored in 80 per cent of areas of the state," he stated.
( With inputs from ANI )
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