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| 19 yrs on, Palla awaits compensation for his gutted house boat | | | Majid Nabi
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Sept 26: A houseboat owner who lost his two siblings after his houseboat at picturesque Dal Lake gutted in tragic fire accident in 1997 claimed that the government despite assurances did not help him to reconstruct his houseboat.
Abdul Rashid Palla a houseboat owner minced no words to criticize successive regimes for making fun of his sentiments attached to his property built by his ailing old aged father.
Recalling the incident, hapless Palla, said that it was a horrible cold night of November 1997 when massive fire broke out in his houseboat 'Lalazaar' in Dal Lake and snatched his two siblings Fatima (6) and Younis (4) besides razing the wooden property worth lakhs of rupees to rubble.
Despite facing privation Palla didn't lose his courage and continued his struggle to accomplish the wish of his father Ghulam Ahmad Palla to reconstruct his houseboat, however the indifferent approach of successive regimes left him out of the frame.
"It has been 19 years now but nobody came forward to help me. I made fervent appeals to the government from time to time to help me in recreating my houseboat but regrettably my pleas fell flat on deaf ears," Palla said while narrating his cheerless tale with 'Early Times'.
He said when disjointing movement in 1989 started in Kashmir he went to Goa to start a new business there but the destiny once again stunned him the moment when one of his knowing informed him that he lost his everything in devastating fire.
Though the memories of the burnt houseboat are fading away year by year, but the horror and shocking images of his burned children are still giving nightmares to Rashid, what is adding salt to his injuries is the official apathy that from last 16 years Rashid is moving from one government department to another to get his case considered.
"When this incident occurred I was in Goa. One of my friends informed about this shocking incident and within two days I came back to Kashmir only to bury my dead children, "Rashid said amid sobs and added the neighbors somehow managed to save my father and wife, but couldn't save my two children Fatima and Younis first from fire flames and then from drowning.
He said that he went to different departments and met various ministers including the then Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah to get the compensation but the corruption and the apathy of the officials pushed him back to the wall and the dreams of seeing a new houseboat remained unfulfilled.
"I know that I can't bring back my children, but as I have promised to my father that I will fight for justice, I will continue to go to offices and meet officials to get my new house boat," says Rashid while pointing towards the debris of the gutted houseboat 'Lalazaar' the burned wood pieces of which have been kept in a marshy land in Dal Lake.
Over these years many government officials have lend a helping hand to the family but. Rashid has kept a record of every single meeting with the officials, he carries a bag full of documents which many politicians have gave him in writing. |
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