GURDASPUR, Sept. 29 -- Even though the floodwaters have receded, the residents of Ghaniye Ke Bet village in Gurdaspur district are still struggling with the aftermath. The village bore the maximum brunt of the Ravi river, destroying crops, houses, and other infrastructure. Almost a month later, the residents are still picking up pieces of their lives. Even as the desilting of fields is the primary focus, the residents are being forced to live in the damaged or semi-damaged houses, while an elderly couple has made a tractor-trolley as their temporary residence. The flood damaged almost all the houses in the village, with many developing cracks. Around 3-4 other families of the village have also made similar temporary arrangements pitching tents in the courtyards of their houses. Ghaniye Ke Bet is in the Dera Baba Nanak sub-division, and around 30 families reside here. Lying between the international border and the Ravi river, the village remained cut off from the mainland for 10 days when the swollen Ravi caused devastating floods due to heavy rainfall in Jammu and Kashmir and the catchment area of Ranjit Sagar Dam. The floods caused widespread damage in Pathankot, Gurdaspur, and Pathankot districts. Ex-serviceman Satnam Singh, 70, whose house was destroyed by the floods, along with his wife, had made a makeshift arrangement on the trolley of the tractor with tarpaulins. "Both my sons live on the other side of the Ravi river. They come to the village for cultivation during the day and return by evening. On the first night of the flood, they were not with us, and my wife and I got trapped as rising water entered the village. The floodwater destroyed a room of our house completely and damaged others. We saved our lives by climbing on the roof of the cattle shed. The flow of water was so fast that we did not have time to leave for a safer place. Today, we are forced to live in a makeshift house on a trolley", he said. Satnam lamented the destroyed crop, which he said was sown after taking a loan from an arhtiya. "The crop is totally ruined. Now, with the sand accumulated on the farmland, we are racing against time to get fields desilted and ready for rabi sowing," he said. Former sarpanch Sukhdev Singh said, "The farmers living on the border remain neglected by the government. A few months ago, the government asked residents of this village to go to safer places during the India-Pakistan conflict. We returned to the village after a month. Now, the flood washed away our crops and houses". Another farmer from the village, Baljit Singh Randhawa, said, "Many NGOs, including Global Sikhs and United Sikhs, have come to help us, but the losses are huge and it will not be easy to restart from zero." Dera Baba Nanak SDM Aditya Sharma said that the administration was working in coordination with the NGOs, and the aid is being extended to the flood-affected areas. "We are carrying out girdawari for crop damage and also assessing damages to the houses. I am already scheduled to visit the village along with agricultural officials on Monday to review the assessment drive."...