Alappuzha: Even after two months, the life of 13 Scheduled Caste families who took refuge on the rooftop of Government Homeo Clinic in Pandanad panchayath, worst-affected in the devastating flood of August, remains unchanged.
All but four of them have left the camp and shifted to either their relative or rented homes. The rest have no proper houses to go, and they get no relief materials supplied. Neither officials nor their ward member turned up to inquire about their living conditions.
They were living as joint families in one or two cents of lands in two remote settlements in the west Pandanad located on the banks of the Achankovil and Pampa rivers.
Omana Aji, who was living in a double-room brick house along with nine members from her and her husband's younger brother's family, sobbed showing the condition of her home now. She says she had owned a single-room house for the four-member family including two sons. The flood changed their destiny leaving the entire settlement homeless. "Our house got cracked up and tilted due to flood water flow. It'll cave in any time," she says.
Families of others including K. Maniyamma, B. Sudev, Madhu, Sreedevi, and Manju have lost their homes and hard-earned belongings of their lifetime.
Ms Manju says they had nowhere to go, and building a new house is unthinkable to them.
"We have applied for houses after the MLA asked us to do so. But nothing has been heard about it so far. We prepare food, eat and sleep here," she says.
Padmavathy hailing from Vattipuzha Colony, and an inmate in the camp, has lost her thatched house in two cents of land rented for Rs 15,000 per year.
Only structure of the house is now left after the rest washed away.
Sudev, a daily wage worker living with his wife and a kid, is unable to build a house. Their only hope is on government aid
