Flood fury unnerved desert state in 2006

Jaipur, Dec 28 (UNI) The year 2006 was the year of calamities for Rajasthan with floods and quakes grabbing major headlines, besides unrest among farmers, traders and caste groups.

While quakes in different parts of the state were harmless, Rajasthan became the one-point focus of the world when floods inundated the border districts of Barmer, Jaisalmer and some other districts in August, and claimed more than 150 lives, making it the singlemost significant event in the recent history of the desert state.

Never having experienced the flood before, the natives of Malwa and Kawas, the two villages in Barmer, which are still submerged inder floodwater, were taken by surprise by the ferocity of the gushing waters.

As they refused to leave their homes, the natives stood transfixed as they saw their near and dear ones and livestock being swept away by the rising floodwaters around their homes.

With over 150 deaths in the entire state, the BJP government came under immense flak for mismanaging the rehabilitation efforts.

The insensitivity of the administration and the government became apparent in the heart-rending Phalna incident in Pali district where five of a family, who were crossing over a bridge were swept away in the flash floods, although they kept crying for help for over seven hours, having climbed over their jeep to save themselves.

Ironically, the state environment minister Laxmi Narayan Dave stood watching the victims cry for help and left without taking any concrete steps, leaving to let the water take them into its fold.

With the media, especially the electronic, cornering the state government over the incident, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's cryptic reply was that the minister simply could not have jumped into the water to save the people there.

Meanwhile, Kawas and Malwa villages still continue to be under three to four feet water as its rocky terrain of gypsum and brantonite does not allow water seepage.

And thus, the much-touted Thar Express between Munabao, the last outpost in Barmer and Khokrapar in Pakistan, has been suspended till February 2007 due to flooded Kawas railway station.

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