Four days after losing 11 members of his family, including his wife, daughter Nisha (20) and two siblings, in a cloud burst, nightmares for Dhiwan Chand are far from over. “My only desire is to find their bodies and perform last rites. I am spending hours on the rubble waiting for the recovery of the bodies. There is nothing left of the village,” he said, with tears rolling down his cheeks.Dhiwan Chand was away at work with a local contractor when the cloud burst swept away the village. In all, 52 deaths have been confirmed so far. Two machines have been pressed into service to speed-up the ongoing search for the bodies, but no new body has been spotted so far. Only two bodies were recovered on Saturday from downstream Ghanvi river.Nakhri Dass, a teacher who lost his two daughters, said he hasn’t lost hope of finding the girls’ bodies. “Please ensure that I can stand on my feet again after suffering such an emotion and financial loss,” he said.“We fear that some bodies have been washed way by the strong current and flash flood caused by the cloud burst,” said Deputy Commissioner Tarun Kapoor, not ruling out the possibility of locating more bodies from beneath the rubble and concrete slabs of damaged houses.Meanwhile, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh visited the village, alongwith a team of top Public Works Department (PWD) officials. The Chief Minister has announced a cash relief of Rs one lakh for the kin of the dead and necessary help, including land for construction of houses. “Those who have lost their land and fields will also be helped,” he said. The road has been cleared and movement of vehicles has been restored. “There are two immediate tasks before us. First to search all the bodies of victims and second provide sufficient relief to the survivors. We have also considered the demand to relocated the village to a safer site. Land has been identified,” the Chief Minister said, after listening to the families.The survivors have been shifted to a relief camp set up in the local High School. “They are being provided free food, blankets and utensils, beside an interim relief Rs 10,000 each,” said the Shimla DC. Rescue operation will continue for another four to five days with the help of the machines.
