After nightmare of Friday when water played havoc, life is slowly limping back to normal in Kotdwar town of Pauri district. The deluge claimed six lives on early Friday morning and destroyed many houses. Water along with mud entered hundreds of houses located in Aampadav, Manpur, Sitabpur, Pratap Nagar, Padampur and other colonies of the town. The refugee colony situated near the bus stand witnessed maximum destruction of life and property.
Two days after the deluge the residents of the city are blaming unplanned development; rampant encroachment spawned by political patronage and completes lack of planning for the present crisis. The late response of the civic administration and its sloppy actions post the deluge of Friday were again exposed by heavy rains on Saturday when water traversing its earlier course again entered the houses of the people. Thankfully on Saturday the intensity of the rain was less than of Friday.
The Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and his Cabinet Minister Harak Singh Rawat who represents Kotdwar Assembly constituency rushed to the town and offered solace to the affected families. Meanwhile the meager amount of the financial assistance offered by the State Government is being rebuked by the people affected by the deluge. Bela Bhatia, whose two room house located in Refugee colony was gutted by flood on Friday, said that the administration offered a cheque of Rs 3800 as financial assistance. She informed that she like many others refused to accept such a small sum. DS Rawat, a local journalist said that people of the city are annoyed at the fact that the Chief Minister only visited the relief camp but refrained from visiting the affected areas. He said that large swathe of agriculture land in the nearby villages has also been washed away causing big losses to the farmers.
“The lack of the official slothfulness can be understood from the fact that traffic on the important Devi road of the town is still not opened. large tree trunks and slush transported by the flood are still not removed from the roads and colonies,’’ said Gabar Singh Rawat a local resident.
The lack of doctors and facilities in the Government hospital of the town were exposed when flood affected people were brought here. Aampadav resident PPS Aswal said, “It is shocking to know that the administration got the realisation of absence of doctors in hospital only when the disaster struck. There is no physician, surgeon, orthopedic and pathologist in the hospital here. Two doctors from Dehradun were rushed from Dehradun on Friday.’’
Kotdwar is considered as the gateway for Garhwal hills. On wee hours of Friday morning the surging water waves triggered by cloud burst and very heavy rains in the hills resulted in unprecedented destruction of life and property in the town.
The water of Paniyali streamlet which traverses through the heart of the town assumed such ferocity that it broke the formidable wall of the Army canteen and MT camp. From here the water reached the colonies located on Devi Road. It caused maximum damage to life and property in the Refugee colony. The Paniyali streamlet has been severely affected by the large scale encroachments. Old timers recount the time when width of the streamlet was 70 to 80 meters but in last two decades many colonies and slums have mushroomed along it shrinking it to less than 10 meters in many places. This streamlet in the past has also caused damage to property and life but the administration has not undertaken any activity to mark its extent. To make matters worse this stream act as sewage disposal site for thousands of houses located nearby.