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Delhi floods: We’ve been cleaning up the slurry of mud, water for last two days, say Majnu ka Tila residents
Local restaurants and guest house operators told HT on Tuesday that they have been hit financially due to the floods with the closure of tourist bus services
When residents came downstairs this week after spending days on upper floors to escape the floodwaters that had entered the narrow congested lanes of Majnu ka Tila, they were met by muddy floors and the strong, overwhelming stench of decaying goods.
Popular for its Tibetan restaurants and guest houses, the unplanned colony in north Delhi’s Aruna Nagar, with several houses built up to four or five storeys, is located 4km away from the Monastery market with a large section abutting the Yamuna.
In its aftermath, the swollen river has also left behind a thick layer of fine whitish dust on the decorative palm plants facing the river, shutters of the shop and buildings.
Passang Lamu, a 42-year-old Tibetan refugee who has been living in the neighbourhood for the past 25 years, said that the community has never seen the river in such fury before.
“We have been cleaning up the slurry of mud and water from houses over the last two days. Nobody from the area moved to rescue camps but all of us moved up to the roofs and upper floors where we have stayed till Sunday. Now the water and electricity supply has been resumed but the low hanging wires in the lanes pose risk for electric shock,” she said.
Local restaurants and guest house operators told HT on Tuesday that they have been hit financially due to the floods with the closure of tourist bus services.
Their plight is similar to that of the famers in the area, whose crops along the Yamuna were damaged and covered in thick layer of greyish sand with the river flowing just above the danger mark next to them.
Arjun Singh, 55, who plants brinjals in the floodplain along Aruna Nagar, said his family had taken refuge in an under-construction building.
“The water was waist-high on Thursday. My sister Rita Devi broke her leg trying to escape and was taken to the trauma centre in Civil Lines, which also got flooded,” Singh said.
