Chandigarh, 22 Sept
Imagine one night your home, your dreams, your entire life gets washed away in water. This is the reality for over 700,000 people in Punjab. This natural calamity submerged 2,300 villages, affecting 2 million people, of which 700,000 were rendered homeless. Fifty-six precious lives were lost and countless dreams shattered. These are not just statistics – they are human stories of pain, families still sitting in relief camps uncertain of their future.
Take for instance the story of 45-year-old Veero Bai of Guddar Bhaini village in Fazilka district. Since August 26, she has been living in a relief camp. “We had to leave behind everything, big and small, when the Satluj waters gushed into our house and rose three feet high,” she recalls. Like her, thousands of families are waiting to go back home.This is Punjab’s most devastating flood in almost four decades.