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Mumbaikars' agony worsens

Meena Menon

Citizens fend for themselves as administration fails to help

NO RESPITE: People walk along the railway track to reach home after heavy rain lashed Mumbai on Sunday resulting in the suspension of train services. — Photo: Vivek Bendre

MUMBAI: "We are drinking gutter water and living in sub-human conditions," says Imran, who is engaged in regulating traffic near the flooded Kurla station. It has been raining heavily since Sunday morning and L.B.S Marg at Kurla, in northeast Mumbai, has flooded once again, blocking traffic. Water was thigh deep at noon and traffic had come to a standstill.

On Saturday, the junction opposite the Kurla bus depot witnessed some violent protests with people blocking the road for hours. "We have no water, power or food," says Imran, and the rest of the large group gathered at the junction nod in agreement. Women and children also took part in the rasta roko and tyres of vehicles were deflated. Kurla was one of the worst-affected areas in Mumbai where the Government dropped food supplies from a helicopter. However, residents said the supplies never reached them. "We only saw the helicopter, it was of no use," say angry residents.

With little or no help from the administration, it is the people themselves who are organising relief and providing help to those in distress. The State Government machinery has simply failed to deliver, they say. At Kurla, on a flyover under construction, over 3,000 people took shelter last week, as the entire area was flooded. On Sunday, a giant cut-out of the local MLA, Nawab Malik, a former Labour Minister, which hangs from the flyover, was garlanded with slippers. "Nobody helped us or came here, not even the people we elected," says Lakshman, a resident.

In other parts of the city too angry and helpless Mumbaikars vented their anger. Many parts of the city are without power and water and very little healthcare. Large mounds of garbage have piled up on the streets and many are paying for private trucks to remove the rubbish. Sunday's rain will only worsen the situation.

Since Wednesday, Imran, Lakshman and other young men from the slums in Kurla have been rescuing people, towing away vehicles and removing garbage to prevent a crisis. "I have got diarrhoea, our children are dying as there is no doctor in the area who can help us as their clinics have been flooded," says Imran. He points to the electricity transformer which is in shambles and says that there has been no power since last Tuesday. "We removed the dead bodies in this area, otherwise there would have been problems here," he says.

In Kalina in northwest Mumbai, another low lying area where traffic came to a standstill on Sunday morning, Inspector Tushar Kadam and his friends are patrolling the Kalina-Kurla road which is under several feet of water. With very little help from any Government authority, it was this group of friends who saved the day when Mumbai received its heaviest rains last week.

Tushar, a policeman and his friends, Mohan Shetty, who works with Air India, R.D. Medar, who works for Indian Airlines, and RamVilas Kanojia, a businessman, worked round the clock with 15 others to evacuate residents, remove dead bodies and provide food to a number of residents trapped in the area.

"We are helping people with emergency rations, candles etc.," says Kadam. They have been on the streets in knee-deep or chest-deep water every day since Tuesday. Most of them have not even reported for work, as they are too busy watching out for others.

"We removed 12 bodies from the area, some of them from buses and handed them over to the police," says Shetty. Seven bodies were found in the security cabin of the Indian Airlines colony. A 54-year-old lady was found dead in a BEST bus on Wednesday and they removed the body and handed it over to the police.

About 250 children and their parents, over 75 of them, were trapped in the school in the Indian Airlines colony — all of them were removed to safety using a rickety boat provided by Benhur Vaz from Mahim, says Kadam. Several trips were made in this boat to rescue the children, he adds. No one came here from the Government or the Army, which sent in boats later, he says. The Air India and Indian Airlines officials only came here on Thursday to check damages. About 6,000 people working in these two airlines live in this area.

A number of slums in the area are without lights and water has once again entered their homes. The deputy commissioner of police, zone 8, Shashikant Shinde has also been pitching in with food and essential items.

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