attuala Narasimhulu (50) has sleepless nights for the past few months, just like the one on Wednesday night. Sudden showers followed by heavy gales wreaked havoc on his temporary shelter leaving him worried about his safety.
He is not alone in this. There are about 30 families living in temporary shelters, and they too are on the edge thinking of their fate if the rains continue. All their problems began last year when they were asked to vacate their dilapidated house by government officials as they were constructing double bedroom houses for the poor. “Our legislator Madan Reddy laid foundation stone for the construction of double bedroom houses in Ambedkar Colony. We were forced to vacate our old houses in four days to facilitate construction of new houses,” Narasimhulu told The Hindu.
They were shown a vacant place close to their residential colony to build temporary shelters. There were about 30 houses in the colony and their owners were promised by the officials that they would soon get new houses in place of the old ones. Each familt spent between Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 10,000 to erect a temporary shelter. But they had no water or power supply due to which they started fetching water from the nearby school. Topping it all, snakes often sneak into their houses petrifying them to no end.
About a week ago, their huts were damaged due to heavy gales. They are now shifting to an open area adjacent to the colony.
“Each iron sheet to serve as a roof costs about Rs. 550. I had constructed the first shed, which was a bigger one, for which I had spent about Rs. 10,000. This time, I am reducing the cost to about Rs. 6,000 as I can’t afford to spend more on building a shed again,” said Narasimhulu.
“In peak summer, we are forced to build new sheds and that is what the hard part is,” murmurs an old woman carrying poles on her head. “We don’t know why the housing project is being delayed. Our repeated appeals to the officials and leaders have not yielded any result,” said Nagender, a resident of the colony.
