Tags:
Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, March 7: Cradling her only surviving child in her arms, Phulmani stares vacantly at the gutted jhuggi which was once her home. The AN-32, which crashed into a water reservoir at Sector 20 in Pappankalan claiming 21 lives this morning, killed both her sons and reduced her home to ashes.
“I had left home at around 8 am after finishing my household chores. I was working at the construction site, when I heard a deafening sound. As I looked up, I saw the broken plane and a huge fire on top of the reservoir. And then suddenly thick black clouds hung like a curtain and I could not see a thing,” she recalls.
With nothing but the safety of her two children in mind, she ran towards her home, barely 20 metres from the crash site. “My husband and I ran towards the jhuggi, but it was too late. My daughter, who I had taken along with me, survived. Our home and all that was there in it has been destroyed,” said Phulmani with tears rolling down her cheeks.
Her twelve-year-old son Akhla and seven-year-old Krishna, who were both playing near the jhuggi cluster adjacent to the reservoir, were charred. A resident of Ranchi in Bihar, Phulmani’s family had moved here a year ago.
The couple was engaged in construction work at the water reservoir being built by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).
“Everything is finished. We are left with nothing but the clothes on our back. The monthly ration — 15 kg of rice and 5 kg of wheat flour — were also destroyed. What will we eat? How will we live?” she asked the government officials who were taking down details about the victims.
Jasru, another labourer employed there who lost his mother due to the mishap, said: “We do not pay much attention to the aircraft as every 10 minutes, one passes over our head. But the noise and the fire that we saw today was like nothing I had ever seen before. I was a little away from the spot and by the time I came, the police had already cordoned off the area. It was only after I pleaded that my family was at home that I was allowed through.” Jasru’s sixty-year-old mother, Johitin, died in her sleep and his five-year-old son Ram Lakhan sustained burn injuries.
Narrating the sequence of events in between sobs, he added: “My mother’s charred body was lying in a corner and I just had time to touch her feet before they took her away. There are nearly 30 families living here but we were the only unlucky ones.” Work on the reservoir is almost finished. Om Prakash, contractor of the reservoir, said: “Ninety-nine per cent of the work was done and it was just a matter of time before it would have been finished and the labourers moved out”.
