TV Celebs Give Their Opinion On The Floods That Took Place In Assam

Assam gets flooded every year, which leads to a loss of human and animal life, soil erosion, and many houses get destroyed. Footage of devastating floods is all over the news this year too. Celebs express worry and talk about how most of us know what is happening, talking about it and then carry on with our lives as if problems in other places or with other people doesn’t seem to affect them.

Sharad Malhotra: Yet another flood has gripped Assam. You can’t even begin to understand what it’s like to live in a flood-prone area, to watch helplessly as your land is lost, to live in tents, and to rebuild your life. The sight of this awful situation makes my heart ache. Despite the yearly donations, the circumstances that arise during the monsoon season remain unchanged.  It’s just a talking point for few days and later fades away.  Addressing the issues only in Assam when the flood strikes isn’t the solution. To comprehend how to take action in these areas, one must come to an understanding. Although we can’t stop the rain, we can definitely minimize the damage. Even in Mumbai in some areas major water logging happens.

Sudha Chandran: Yes, every year Assam gets flooded, we see it in the news, talk about it for a few days and then forget about the issue and carry on with our lives. This has become a pattern. The point is that we only discuss, but we have to find out a concrete practical solution to the problem. We can’t be debating on the news channel and talking about the situations for months and then next year the same thing happens again. This is happening with every state. Even in Maharashtra, water clogging is a huge issue and at that time we all are in a mess, don’t know how to reach our place of work or how many people fall into the water drains and hurt themselves. The accidents are at times fatal too, but it’s untraceable, and this problem happens every year. Why can’t we find a solution? In this country, we are only debating and not finding solutions. As the days are progressing, we are getting insensitive to the real issues and are just talking about, as if, just showing off our concern. No solutions are being found, sadly.

Vijayendra Kumeria: Floods in Assam are a reality, and happen every year. It is surely not a good feeling to see so much destruction. The government of the state needs to find a solution for this. This is a natural calamity that is being caused by ecological imbalance. We, sitting in Mumbai, can do nothing except doing our bit for the environment. Relief stuff happens and we can donate, but proper solutions need to be found so that floods can be controlled and lives can be saved.

Balraj Syal: Why only Assam, if you see Bihar on an average every two years, the state gets flooded. We see the footage on news and share the link on social media and appeal to people to help. People share the news because at that time there is hype around it and everyone is doing it. The government says that the military and the natural disaster team is working on it day and night, however I don’t understand why the flood happens every year, and why isn’t their any solution? What are we doing for the prevention of floods? After floods, many people become homeless, so is anybody doing anything to prevent that. Why talk only about Assam. It is true that these problems do not affect the daily lives of those not facing it but that does not mean people are not suffering. There are some people who donate but whether it reaches directly to the people in need or not, nobody knows. The focus should be on prevention rather than asking for donations and appealing to people every year.

Amal Sehrawat: Every monsoon, Assam gets flooded, and this year the problem has gotten worse. Over a million people are now living amid hunger and without any shelter. I am happy that there are celebrities and others who donate money for Assam, but the problem uniquely remains of Assam and Assam’s only. Also, there is little mention of the flooding in the mainstream media. Throughout the year, numerous Assamese organisations have pleaded with the centre to address these problems and have made demands in this regard, but to no avail. As the time passes by, we become less understanding of the problems and only discuss them in order to be heard. However, no real solution has been found yet, and we are all continuing with our normal work.

Sudhanshu Pandey: When I see the news of Assam being flooded or any other place that gets flooded and people getting affected, it is really heart-wrenching. In fact I was watching a video where the air force was dropping bags of food into the flooded village in Assam and it felt so bad. On one hand we feel sad and on the other hand we feel proud of the government and its work and the hard work of the air force. Ultimately it’s the army who comes to our rescue in such situations. They take care of the people who are stranded and in trouble, they come to save their lives and that is what they have been doing even now. We are all immune to the fact that these things happen and it’s a human tendency that unless something affects you directly you don’t really react that much. The compassion amongst us has become low, although if it was in my capacity and I could do something personally. I would help even one person and it would have given me a lot of satisfaction. I keep my eyes open if there’s anything or anywhere something needs to be donated, I have done that in the past and I still do it. That’s the least contribution I can give apart from praying for their safety.

Chitra Vakil Sharma: Assam is flooded yet again. It’s a yearly thing that individuals of the state have been living with since days of yore. It’s heartbreaking to see these visuals every year. It’s bizarre that the government is unable to do anything to improve the situation. No doubt they are helping the citizens, but their help comes after the flood has hit hard and what they should be focusing on is how to prevent this situation from happening every year.  People, not facing the situation, do seem to live on unaffected as they have their own battles to fight. They sympathise but don’t have the time or they can’t actually be of any help, so there’s nothing they can do but pray and move on. It’s a natural phenomenon but can be controlled, if not prevented. But I am sure there could be a few things that could be done so the probability of it happening becomes less.

Nivedita Basu: I was always interested in knowing what is happening in Assam because for almost 10 years my cousin has been there and now a very close friend of mine lives there. Living in Mumbai, we feel our lives are the most miserable however the northeast always gets ignored when such calamities and disasters happen. I think we exploit nature so much that when it reacts with all its might (read natural disasters), whether it’s a landslide or a flood etc, we become helpless. Not specifically northeast, but across the world, the situation is the same. People still think that we are talking too futuristic and it’s not something that is going to happen. I am very critical about wrong or unnecessary overuse of natural resources, especially water. The government needs to be a little pro-active because every year it can’t be the same situation. The infrastructure needs to get better instead of opening fancy malls and theatres. Once the infrastructure is strong, the place can be a little more proactive to lead a better life and then it also becomes safe for tourists.