By Amir Tantray
Jammu: With summer knocking at the door, the surface connectivity to the Warwan and Marwah areas of the Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir was restored a few days ago after a gap of five months. This gives hope to the people of Malwarwan village, affected by a devastating fire, to rebuild their houses.
Around 85 houses were completely gutted in a massive and devastating fire on October 14, 2024, in Malwarwan, leaving around 1000 people homeless and in search of places to spend the harsh winter months.
From clothes to mattresses, utensils and houses, the fire incident snatched everything from the people, even their hopes of living a respectable life. However, the immediate response from the people of the Kishtwar, Doda and Ramban districts of the Jammu region and that of Kashmir Valley encouraged them to plan for rebuilding their lives from the ashes.
Within days of the incident, several non-governmental organisations from these areas had reached there with essential commodities, followed by tin sheets and bricks, which would help them to start the construction of their houses from scratch.
The incident occurred at a time when winter was around the corner in the area, and the immediate need was to get suitable accommodation to pass the harsh winter months without facing many difficulties.
“It was the time when people of other nearby villages and hamlets which had remained safe from the fire opened their homes to accommodate people,” said Muhammad Hafiz, a resident of Malwarwan, who was also part of the committee to look after receiving and distributing relief material among the needy people.
“If a house’s owner had four rooms, he gave two rooms to an affected family so that they could spend the time without getting exposed to the harsh winters,” he claimed.
Even government buildings like schools and Panchayat Ghar were also opened to accommodate the affected families. Few families spent time in prefabricated sheds provided by the administration.
During the winter months, the area witnesses sub-zero temperatures, and the only road link with the rest of the union territory from Margan Top remains closed due to the accumulation of snow. Though the area falls in Kishtwar district, it doesn’t have direct road connectivity with the district headquarters, and the people commute through Margan Top, which connects it with south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.
During the winters, the government provides them a subsidised helicopter service so that people can move to the district headquarters in Kishtwar in case of an emergency.
The Malwarwan fire incident was the first major calamity for the newly elected Omar Abdullah government of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir to deal with, and the chief minister made his maiden visit to the area after taking the oath of office to get a firsthand account of the damage that occurred. He had even announced a cash relief of Rs 2 lakh per affected family, which the locals have acknowledged receiving. The Red Cross Society also provided cash relief to the affected families.
“Our government had announced immediate relief in terms of cash, and soon people will receive relief under the Prime Minister Relief Fund as well. Moreover, houses for the majority of the people will be built under PM Awas Yojna,” claimed Pyare Lal Sharma, Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Inderwal. Warwan and Marwah are part of this constituency.
But things are not easy for them, as they will get only five months, up to October, to complete the construction process.
“At present, people have started farming activity, which is the main source of income for the majority of the people, and it will take them a month or so to complete it,” said Muhammad Yaseen, another local. “As the road connectivity has resumed, we will require construction material like bricks, steel, cement and also the wooden logs, and after that, the process will begin,” he said.
The cement, bricks and steel will be coming from the Kashmir Valley and Jammu, and wooden logs have to be provided by the forest department.
“The forest department requires more than Rs 30 lakh from the government to provide free wooden logs to the affected families as promised earlier, but so far, things haven’t moved in that direction. We are waiting for the quick action by the government so that people don’t suffer,” said Sheikh Zafarullah, District Development Councillor (DDC) Marwah.
The MLA Inderwal assured him that he had directed the forest department to expedite the process.
Babar Hassan Nehru, the founder and head of Ababeel NGO, who was the first and major contributor of relief material to the area, said, “We will be providing more relief in days to come, and soon the rehabilitation work will start in the village.”
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