From riches to rags: The elderly of Solan villages share their plight after losing palatial houses (original) (raw)

The recent monsoon fury that created havoc in Himachal Pradesh has brought the entire state to its knees. And amongst the worst affected are residents of various villages in Solan, with several families’ stories changed to riches to rags after they lost their palatial homes constructed absorbing their lifetime savings.

Despite the efforts of the state government to restore normalcy with schemes like providing rent to the homeless and distributing relief to the affected population, for many in the Solan, life will never be the same as they have been forced back from their palatial homes to a dingy one-room set on rent.

“After my house and hotel got completely damaged, I had to shift with my entire family from my palatial five-storey house to a local temple room. While the conditions here are really bad, we have fewer options,” Sewak Ram, an owner of a local hotel told The Indian Express.

Ram added that several locals have taken advantage of this emergency situation, and have increased the room rent to double of what they previously were. “The rooms that were charging Rs 4,500 as rent, suddenly suddenly increased it to Rs 9,000. While many shifted to Dharampur on rented accommodations, I wanted a room close to my completely damaged house and hotel as the rag pickers daily come from Pinjore side and try to ransack our property and hotel by picking up what all they can like sanitary fittings etc. So to keep a watch, I preferred staying close by rather than move to another location with my family, unlike others,” he further said.

Ram considered of retirement next year to lead a “peaceful” life and relax after years of hard work, but “life had something else in store”. “Now life has taken a complete U-turn with me to look for work even after retirement to earn bread for my family with this weak 58-year-old body,” he said.

While various schemes have been floated by the Himachal government, Ram claimed, they are of no use to people like us. “I had spent almost Rs 1. 5 to 2 crore on my hotel construction using all my savings and taking lakhs of loans from the banks. In return we were given Rs 1 lakh as a relief by the government.

The government offered accommodation under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, but the various conditions and restrictions under the scheme are so strict, that most of the people refused to go for it,” the 58-year-old elaborated.

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Similar sentiments were shared by Lekh Raj, a resident of village Sujji, whose lifelong savings and retirement money went for a toss as his house fell like “house of cards”. “I am a 60 year old heart patient retired from the HRTC department of Himachal Pradesh. I thought after retirement, I will have a comfortable and peaceful life, for which I had worked the entire life. Despite having spent my entire earnings on the construction of a beautiful big house, I and my family are homeless today,” he said.

“Having left with no option, I had to shift from my house to a dingy one-room rented accommodation in Dharampur now with great difficulty, that too at double the rate of what was charged before the monsoons,” Raj added.

“Right now, it is my retirement money that I am using to pay the rent of this room as I have no more source of income left. My kids are still not settled and I have no source of income left with us now,” he further said.
“I am a retired man and have lost everything that I had.

From a palatial house that I built to a small two-room rented accommodation is not what my family deserved after years of hard work, Nanak Chand Shandil, a resident of Solan said. He added that a helpline number was issued to contact the authorities and was also informed that soon an official of NHAI would contact him, but it has been two weeks, and “no one even bothered to know in what condition we people are in”.

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With winters fast approaching, something has to be done on war footing or else these people would die of cold here, told Shailender Gupta, BJP spokesperson, Solan, to The Indian Express. “The government under a scheme claims to temporarily provide the affected people with a two- or one-bedroom flat. As major destruction was caused in the rural parts of the state rather the urban part, a farmer, who has his cattle and other farm animals cannot stay in a flat. Why is the government not understanding this,” asked Gupta.

The BJP spokesperson further said that the state government should provide affected residents with five biswa land so that after a few months, all these people will automatically generate their own revenue rather than being dependent on the government.

“The government is instead providing temporary shelters to them and after a few months, they will become homeless again, with no money left with them at all,” Gupta added.