House boat dwellers protest against Govt apathy over rehabilitation

Srinagar: The houseboat dwellers of Gow Kadal to Chinkral Mohalla Wednesday staged protest against the government for allegedly failing to rehabilitate them from past seven years.

Around 128 families whose house boats were asked to shift seven years ago by the authorities after an assurance that they will be rehabilitated soon, assembled outside the Deputy Commissioner Srinagar’s office and were chanting slogans likes ‘we want justice’. 

The protesting house boat dwellers blocked the main bridge for the vehicular movement outside the DC office Srinagar and were not allowing anyone to ply though the bridge.

Ali Muhammad, one of the house boat dweller told KNS that they were asked to shift to other place after an assurances that they will be rehabilitated.”After passing seven years, the government is yet to provide any compensation to the families who vacated from their house boats from Gow Kadal to Chinkral Mohalla,” he said.

He said that they time and again urged the higher ups to look into the matter but nothing has been done in this regard.

Ali Muhammad told KNS, “From past 7 years, we are living in rented rooms. Now, we don’t have an amount to pay for the rooms. We will come on roads if our demands will not be fulfilled,” he said.

He said that the government should look into their sufferings and should provide any respite to the families. “We vacated from house boats after the government assures us that we will be rehabilitated but it is injustice with us that from past seven years our rehabilitation was ignored by the successive regimes,” he said.

The protesting families later appealed the new Dispensation headed by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to redress their genuine demands at earliest. (KNS)

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