Kurubarahalli residents struggle to make ends meet after heavy rains

BENGALURU:  Residents of Kurubarahalli can only recollect horrifying experiences of the day it rained. The others remember being in neck-deep water and rescued back to safety. With half their property either damaged or swept away, they are trying hard to make ends meet after the rains on Saturday. On October 14, two residents of the area, Ningamma and Pushpa, were washed away as the rain water gushed sweeping them along. Most of these residents living in that part of Kurubarahalli next to a drain are daily wage workers. Some of them earn less than `50 every time they head out for work.

As if the grief of having lost their family members is not enough for a few of these residents, being able to get their next meal is their concern. The other residents in the same locality as the deceased, are trying to pick up the peices and start everything from scratch. “Do you see the water mark here? This is the point till which my house was flooded. Utensils were washed away, my TV was damaged and bathroom door has been washed away,” explained Jayamma, one of the residents, as she pointed at stains that the water had left at a height of about eight feet.

Jayamma who is a daily wage labourer said: “I have been surviving on one meal a day. Till yesterday, we had the local leaders bring us food. Today, there has been nothing. I do not have water to even wash my clothes. I am worried about my health in such conditions,” she said. Pushpa, a flower vendor, who is facing a similiar situation, said: “Everything in my house was washed away.

I have no clothes to wear. I had to throw away the mattress and pillows as they were drenched in the sewage water. I have to sleep on the floor in such a cold weather,” she complained. Shivamma, another resident, nearly lost her children as they were about to be swept away.

Your compensation is peanuts, MLA’s men told On Tuesday, when TNIE visited the spot, MLA K Gopalaiah’s aides were at the spot assuring residents that they would be given `2,00 each. Furious residents were heard yelling, “If you give us a cheque of `2,000, we will all pool in, add money to it and give it back to you. We have to start our life afresh and he compensation will not even be enough to buy our clothes back,” yelled one of the residents.

Search op called off
After a five-day long search for Ningamma and her daughter who were  washed away in a drain in Kurubara halli, the search operation was called off on Tuesday. The team had searched up to Bidadi, 40km from the spot where they fell into a drain.