Amid election din, this Rajbagh family faces cold in shack

The recent deluge washed away all his dreams and of other members of his family who used to live together in a single storey house in Kursoo Rajbagh.
According to officials in administration, floods damaged more than 72000 houses in Srinagar city while 68000 houses were damaged in other flood-hit districts making it a huge task for the government to rehabilitate the victims.
“It is really horrible living here for past four months,” says Sheikh, covered in a torn rough blanket.
A cobbler by profession, Ghulam Muhammad Sheikh feeds his five-member family from his daily earnings. “We have a five-member family here that includes my wife, two sons and an unmarried daughter,” Sheikh said. “My sons are married but their wives have shifted to their parents after floods destroyed our home.”
While narrating the horrific tale of destruction caused by floods, Sheikh has a ray of hope to settle down again in his house. “Insha Allah every flood-victim will get settled again. Even if God snatched our whole property at least He gave us a chance to live again. I am thankful to him for this,” said the flood-hit Sheikh who had come from his work to take his lunch in his shack amid biting cold.
Losing everything except life, Sheikh, unlike other flood-victims expects a ‘major relief’ from the government saying all the homeless people will be given prefabricated huts being constructed in Rajbagh area, worst hit by floods.
“It may take some days for them to complete the construction but we have been assured that these huts will be handed over to the flood-hit people who are wandering homeless,” says optimistic Sheikh.
Interestingly the family also cast five out of seven votes during the recent assembly elections. “Barring me and my wife all my family members cast their votes in the elections.”
The family participated in elections despite being allegedly neglected by former MLA Amira Kadal, Nasir Aslam Wani. “He came here before elections to distribute blankets among flood victims but out rightly refused to give a single blanket to me. He told me that he had come to distribute blankets among the other people only.”
He was however interrupted by his wife Haleema, saying, “We lost everything in floods but no one from government came forward to help us. People from villages and other parts of valley visited here and provided us some clothes and other eatables during that tough time,” Haleema said.
Sheikh had fixed the dates for the marriage of her daughter Felori Jan on September 5-6 with Bilal Ahmad Sheikh of Sonwar, however the floods changed everything and the bride had to leave along with her bridegroom before the scheduled time.
“We called them and requested to take the bride along and the bridegroom came alone in a vehicle to take his bride. Whatever we had bought for our daughter was washed away by floods. We are yet to do other ceremonies which every family does after marriage,” said Haleema.
“Life looks completely dark now,” she says. “Everything is gone and nobody cares at us.”