The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : First the tsunami, then the inferno

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 21, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

First the tsunami, then the inferno

Swahilya

In a cruel twist of fate, fire reduces huts at Kargil Nagar rehabilitation centre to ashes

Peace amid chaos: The fire that gutted huts at Kargil Nagar recently seems not to have the power to take away the sound sleep of this little boy. Photo: S. Thanthoni.

CHENNAI: First, the tsunami washed away their homes. Slowly they managed to rebuild their lives with help and aid from the Government and NGOs.

But in a cruel twist of fate, a big fire reduced their huts in Kargil Nagar Tsunami Rehabilitation Centre to ashes, rendering them homeless and shattered once again.

Following the fire that broke out in Power Kuppam on Wednesday, share autos have been doing brisk business moving people to collect relief material — cooking utensils and plastic pots — provided by Karunalaya, an NGO in Tondiarpet.

Squalid conditions

Saris and bedsheets tied to poles serve as makeshift shelters for the residents.

Residents say water has been stagnating around the main drainage line for over two months.

"This water and the surroundings with no sanitation and hygiene create the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes. Many children have contracted fever," said Nadia, a resident.

On Monday evening, a woman crossing a thin bridge made of casuarina poles to reach to the main road fell into the canal as the poles gave way, residents said.

Children cross the canal filled with garbage by sitting astride a casurina pole. There are no steps for the residents to climb down to the area where their homes were.

There is just a slippery, stony ramp-like path and often, they lose their footing while making their way down, residents said.

V. Johnson from Power Kuppam Pallapaguthi has set up a small shop, which his son looks after when he goes to sea to fish. "Every day, I spend Rs. 20 to go to the sea by share auto. All our possessions have gone in the fire, except the clothes that we were wearing," he said.

The residents said that though the fire tenders came when five rows of huts were burning, the fire could not be put out till another ten rows were gutted.

"People on the other side are threatening to set fire to the remaining huts so they would also get the Government solatium of Rs. 2,000," a woman said.

Prakash, a resident, said the Government should provide alternative arrangements. "Fishermen spend up to a week at sea. What guarantee do we have that our families will be alive when we return?" he said.

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