Shahberi deserted, shops shut as rescue operation ends

NOIDA: Shahberi village in Greater Noida, which was flooded with the police, and administration and rescue officials for three days, wore a deserted look after the rescue operation ended on Friday evening.

Most of the shops belong to local realtors and agents who downed their shutters and removed posters and flex boards with their contact numbers. The only remaining shops that stayed open included a handful of grocery stores, pharmacies and a beauty parlour.

The roads of Shahberi, usually busy during the evening, were empty on Friday.

“We don’t know anything about the builders and contractors, but people here keep asking as if we knew them. We live here on rent as do many others. This is why many people are just staying indoors now,” Ram Avtar, a shopkeeper who hails from Madhya Pradesh, said.

By Friday morning the numbers of the rescue and police force had reduced to half as hopes of finding more people or bodies fizzled out. Those who came to see the site, following the initial buzz, left. The next of kin who had gathered on the first two days, found their relatives’ bodies and left to perform the last rites.

The 100-odd people lurking around till Friday evening were local villagers waiting for authorities to leave the area, so that they could take the iron bars and rods from the debris and sell them for scrap. As soon as the earthmovers stopped work, hundreds, including women and children, fled with iron bars that were excavated from the debris of the collapsed buildings.