The Nimtali victims

A report in The Daily Star has drawn our attention to the difficult days that the survivors of the Nimtali fire are passing almost two months after the incident. Given that the inferno has devastated a large number of houses and rendered a large number of the residents homeless as a consequence has added to the grief of loss of their very near ones in the fire.
We feel that the devastation the blaze has left in its wake is no less than any other natural disaster that occurs in our country because of the scale of the destruction as well as of the grave impact it has had on the lives of the survivors. The inferno has also taken away all their earthly possessions, and for them it would not be possible to reestablish themselves without substantive government support. Many of the victims have been well-to-do people who have become paupers because of the fire. Some are people with modest means that the fire has wrecked.
A few of the residents have to eke out their existence from support being rendered by their family members but that is neither substantive nor permanent and most do not have even that support. Many are spending the daytime hours inside the burnt-out house and have to fall back inside the corridors of a relative's residence for the night.
Very soon after the devastation we had heard assurances of support from the administration for rehabilitation of the victims. Unfortunately, money does not flow out as readily or as quickly as verbal commitments. And only those families that suffered casualties in terms of injury or death have been given monetary help.
The PM's spontaneous support for some of the victims by providing them all the help to solemnise their marriage, whose prospect had all but turned to ashes in the inferno, is worthy of repeat. Similar large scale support must come forthwith. Many of he victims have not received any monetary help since they did not suffer any death in the fire.
As many as six multistoried buildings and twenty shops of various sizes have been destroyed and nearly 80 families affected by the fire. We strongly appeal to the government to address the woes of the Nimtali victims on an urgent basis.
The government must provide adequate support to rebuild the destroyed houses as well as help the survivors to start up on whatever business they were pursuing heretofore. The Nimtali survivors will have to literally pick up the pieces and rise up from the ashes, and it is the government that can help them do so first and foremost.