A day after more than 2,000 families were rendered homeless after fire broke out at a slum cluster in Northwest Delhi's Rithala area, the Delhi Government authorities have set up counters at the site where officials from the Punjab and Sind Bank are opening bank accounts for the affected families.
Talking to The Pioneer, one of the bank officials, said, "We have registered the names of the head of roughly 299 families. For those who have lost even their aadhar cards. We are getting their thumb impressions registered so as to facilitate them in making a new aadhar card for them. Once these identification proofs are in place, we will transfer Rs 25,000 as per the order by the Government order."
On the intervening night of December 4 and 5, a fire gutted more than 500 jhuggis near a Surya Hotel close to the Rithala Metro station. Although no casualties were reported in the mishap, more than 2,000 families, who are into selling scrap, were rendered homeless.
Clutching on to her 2-year-old son, Mahinoor Bibi said, "I was sleeping in my home. Around 12:35 am, we heard loud noises. Assuming that it was a minor scuffle, we went back to sleep. However, as the people started raising voices, me and my husband came out and saw that a fire has broken out. Without giving due to our essential commodities, we rushed out of our homes, holding onto our children, our future."
located inside the narrow lanes of Rithala Sector 5, thousands of the jhuggi residents earn their livelihood by collecting and selling scrap. Mohd Sheikh, a local said, how he has been saving the scrap for the past 2-3 months. "Due to demonetisation scheme, no one was willing to buy our scrap. Even if a few did, they had given us old currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000."
A few metres, sitting idle among the ashes is one Class 10th student of a Government senior secondary school. Pointing towards the remains of her text-books, Rinki Khatun said, "I recently finished my Unit Tests in the school at Rohini Sector 6 and was planning to start preparing for the main exams in March. Now everything is burnt to ashes."
According to the locals, most of them came to Delhi from parts of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Orissa.
Talking to The Pioneer, 60-year-old Telja Bibi, native of West Bengal said, "I have been living here for the past 24 years. I came here since the land was allotted to the jhuggis. This is the second time that a fire broke here. In 2011 too, a fire has engulfed our homes, leaving us miserable."
Rina Bibi claimed, "The fire broke out at 12:35am. But the fire vehicle came only around 3am. Furious, the locals pelted stones at the fire tenders. We lost everything and it was only when everything turned to ashes, that these fire tenders came."