Flood-hit families of Hyderabad yet to recover from misery

Rainwater, slush damage houses including finery, furniture purchased for weddings scheduled next month

Hyderabad: Mohammed Mahbub, a construction worker living at Osman Nagar, is a worried man these days. The reason? His daughter’s marriage was scheduled to be held next month, but his house is still submerged in water after the mid-October rains.

The family had purchased electronic gadgets and clothes to be gifted to their daughter and kept all that in the house.

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“As the water levels started rising, we left the house with gold and a little cash. But we could not gather the clothes, utensils or the electronic items. After all these days, you can imagine the condition of those,” laments Mahbub.

Several families where marriages were fixed before the flash floods are now in distress and are overcome with anxiety and uncertainty as to how to go ahead with the marriages, a costly affair these days.

Mohd Saleemuddin, a painter from Al Jubail Colony, had fixed the marriage of his daughter on November 3. “Painting of the house was done just days before the rains. On the night of October 13, when the rain water gushed into our homes, we had to escape leaving behind everything. I spent close to Rs 2 lakh on purchasing gift articles like clothes, beds, almirah and other household articles for my daughter’s wedding. All of them are now covered with slush. Rescheduling the marriage is not an option now, because due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we had already rescheduled it once. We are now hoping that some good Samaritans will come forward and help us,” says Saleemuddin.

“Articles gathered over a period of time, in some cases over a couple of years, to gift to their daughters at the time of marriage and kept in their homes were badly damaged in the flash floods at Al Jubail Colony, Bhavaninagar, Hashimabad, Ali Nagar, Gulshan Iqbal Colony, Osman Nagar and Omer Colony of Hafeez Baba Nagar. The situation is really bad,” says Mohd Akram of Azad Foundation. His foundation has so far supported three families with articles usually gifted by the bride’s family.

Several middle-class and lower middle class families are now making frantic appeals on social media platforms asking netizens to help them. In a video widely shared on social media platforms, an elderly couple from Hafeez Baba Nagar is seen weeping and seeking help from public representatives to fund for their daughter’s marriage.

MBT leader Amjedullah Khan said they were receiving several distress calls from families seeking financial assistance or articles for marriages.

“We are doing whatever possible after verification. But considering the magnitude of the problem, the government should extend some bigger financial package to such affected families,” he adds.

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