Over a month after the floods, every house is damaged in Srinagar's Jawahar Nagar
Flood-hit Srinagar is happy that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has chosen to spend the Diwali with them. And his visit, they hope, will help divert some much-needed Central help towards them.
The state government has distributed an interim relief Rs 89 crore among the flood-hit people - which roughly translates to Rs 75000 for each house that collapsed. Forget rebuilding, the amount is not even enough to get the rubble carted away.
One of the hopefuls is 75-year-old Teerath Singh, who has practically lost everything. His house at Jawahar Nagar is badly damaged. His family of 12 had to move in with relatives in Budgam district.
Without any help from the government, Teerath Singh was contemplating migration. Now he hopes for any help the Prime Minister might bring.
"I was just five years old when started working. I worked as labourer, as a driver. At times, I spent days without food. And then I managed to build this house. Where will I go?" he said.
Over a month after the floods, Teerath Singh's neighbourhood looks like a ghost town. Every house is damaged, their residents turned pauper.
One of the locals, Irfan Hussain, could not salvage even a change of clothes. The state government, he said, didn't have the resources to rehabilitate the thousands of homeless families and the Prime Minister's visit could go a long way towards restoring the faith of the people.
"It would give the impression that the Prime Minister is taking the destruction seriously. And it can trickle down to the ministries," he said.
His neighbor, Bhupinder Singh, agreed. "We had decided not to celebrate Diwali. But now that the Prime Minister is coming, we will celebrate and ask him what was to happen to us," he said.