Jamia Nagar flames doused, stories of sorrow come to light

New Delhi: Gulshan Fatima stands in the black ruins, staring on the ground where she had her Jhuggi two days ago. She occasionally bends down to pick up traces of white paper if she finds any. She cries wiping her swollen eyes with the duppata she had draped herself in. "I have bought a small piece of land in Noida village, every month I gave the owner Rs 5,000. I am afraid all my receipts have been burnt. I am ruined. I have no proof of the payment I have done till date. All the papers of the land have also been burnt," Fatima says as her voice goes hoarse.

Around 59 shacks were gutted in a fire on Tuesday afternoon near the Batla House in Jamia Nagar.

She is not alone, a few meters from Fatima, sits a lady in her early thirties, who tells her name Chandni. As ladies sitting around her saw Millennium Post correspondent, they asked Chandni to tell about her loss.

"Me and my husband use to work in different houses and have been collecting money to buy a new battery rickshaw. I was in the Kothis working in the morning when I heard of the fire in the Jhuggis, I rushed home only to find my Rs 60,000 tured into black ashes," says Chandni as she fights her tears.

The fire that some say started from an electric pole soon tuned the area into ashes. Fortunately, no human life was lost though some animals were burnt alive.

Okhla Mla Amanatullah said, "We are arranging food for the families and distributing clothes and blankets to the affected. It's a tough time for the affected people".

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday announced Rs 25,000 each for families whose shacks were charred in the fire.

Kejriwal visited the area on Wednesday and promised the compensation for reconstruction of their homes. He also said that arrangements would be made for school-going children and new documents would be made for people who lost their official documents in the blaze.

Two cranes were seen working on the site and trolleys of mud was put on the affected land so that the level is maintained. People were seen sitting in the open though tents were erected at a distance.