The Tamil Nadu government has announced that it will give Rs 10,000 to those who have lost huts and also provide a permanent home. (AP photo)
Seventy-year-old Govindasamy, a former milk vendor, is back home, six days after floods struck his hut along the Saidapet Bridge across the Adyar River in Chennai.
The deluge has washed away all his belongings. Tonnes of garbage are now piled up along Karunanidhi Street all the way to his doorstep. The street resembles a garbage dump, ripe with stench and filth that could spread disease. "No help has come. I just sit helplessly," he said.
Floods in the river ran well above the bridge on the Dec 2.
Chitra, a mother of two is a shattered. There's nothing left in the cupboard that had all her possessions. Her little children have lost their books. She alleges no official or politician has visited the area. "We just get food. We feel ignored by politicians who run after us during elections," she said.
Not far away inside her little hut, Jainis sees no hope of salvaging any of her belongings. Her little hut now resembles a cesspool of slush. Her TV, the only electronic gadget she owned, is all but junk. "Except my life I have nothing left" she said.
The Tamil Nadu government has announced that it will give Rs 10,000 to those who have lost huts and also provide a permanent home. But for now, there seems to be no relief for those who don't even have a roof over their head.
More than 250 people were killed and thousands displaced as much of Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu were submerged in flood waters after the highest rainfall in nearly a hundred years lashed the state over the past month.