16-year-old girl dies in house collapse

Dharamsala, September 6

Sonali, a 16 year-old-girl from Darkata village in Dehra assembly constituency, was crushed to death in debris of her kucha house that collapsed yesterday night.

Sonali’s father Ashok Kumar, repented why he allowed his daughter to sleep in kucha house. He said that they have seven members in family. In 2014 the government had given them money to construct a one-room pucca house under PM Awas Yojna. “We managed to construct a small pucca room. However, since all seven members cannot sleep in the one pucca room both his daughters used to sleep in the kucha old portion of the house.

“Yesterday one of my daughters had gone to relative’s house and Sonali was sleeping alone in kucha portion of the house. We heard a huge thud at about 2 am and came out of room and found the kucha portion of the house collapsed. We pulled out Sonali out of debris and took her to Dehra hospital but she was declared brought dead,” said the wailing father of Sonali.

Today morning various rural development department officials visited the house of Ashok Kumar and concluded that the kucha house collapsed as wood blocks that were supporting the house got damaged due to termite. — TNS