40 percent of the Sainj market, which was settled 100 years ago, has been completely destroyed. 52 houses and shops were swept away like straws. Along with their home, their business has also been snatched away.
100 year old Sainj market destroyed in flood, 52 houses and shops were washed away
Sainj Bazar, the center of 15 panchayats in Sainj Valley of Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh, has been ravaged by floods. 40 percent of the Sainj market, which was settled 100 years ago, has been completely destroyed. 52 houses and shops were swept away like straws. Along with their home, their business has also been snatched away. On July 10, in the flash floods in the Pin Parvati river, large buildings collapsed like a deck of cards and were swept away.
People didn’t even get a chance to take out their belongings. The houses of Raju, Tirtha Ram and Nirmala worth Rs 1 crore each also got washed away. The ancestral wooden houses of five to six people including Sabto Devi, Hemraj, Rajkumar and Kanhaiya Lal have been destroyed. The family is now taking shelter in an under-construction house. Elders say that there was no settlement in Sainj Bazar about 100 years back.
There was not even a road to reach here. First of all, traders from Kangra used to come to Sainj and used to give grains or herbs in exchange of goods. Seeing the increasing business activities, gradually the surrounding villagers also turned towards Sainj. Sainj’s settlement took the form of a town.
In 1995 it got the status of Sub Tehsil. In the year 2000, Asia’s second largest Parvati Hydroelectric Project came up in Sainj. In no time, a network of roads was spread in the entire area. Tehsildar Sainj Heera Chand Nalwa said that so far 75 people, including 52 affected people of Sainj Bazar, have been given immediate relief amount of Rs one lakh each.
The total loss from the disaster is still being assessed. Rajkumar said that he has been doing business in Sainz for 50 years. He had a four-storey eight-room house in Sainj Bazar. Along with this, he also had a hardware shop. The house worth crores along with the goods worth crores got washed away in the river.
The affected Tirtha Ram said that his five-storey building had 30 rooms. The house worth crores got drowned in the river. This tragedy has wounded Toumr. The river has washed away 40 percent of the Sainj market. The victim, Nirmala Arora, said that she had built a three-storey house in Sainj Bazar by adding every penny. On July 10, the raging form of the Pin Parvati Sainj river destroyed everything. It is said that the flood has changed the map of Sainj Bazar.
