Nurpur: Houses damaged after massive land sinking, families spend nights in tents

Rajiv Mahajan

NURPUR, AUGUST 23

As many as 30 members of seven families of Bariara village in Khel gram panchayat of Nurpur have been spending miserable nights in the tent accommodations provided to them on Sunday by the NDRF after their pucca houses were damaged after massive land sinking on Saturday night. The administration has also provided them facility of electricity and piped water supply.

The humid climate and threat of wild animals have been haunting these families. Children and ailing old family members are a harried lot as after living in pucca houses for several years they have to live in tent accommodations after the natural calamity. Nirmla Devi, an old woman, suddenly fainted in the tent accommodation due to humidity this morning and had to be shifted in the emergency ward of Nurpur civil hospital by his family where she has been recovering.

One of her sons Onkar Singh, who is working in a private transport company in Delhi, told The Tribune that he had spent over Rs 30 lakh in the construction of his home at Bariara village a few years back but after its damage due to land sinking his whole earning had washed away in one go.

Kuldeep Singh, another victim of the natural calamity, says his two sons are labourers and re-construction of the house a distant dream to them. “The families living in tent accommodations feel suffocated due to humid climate. They have to spend sleepless nights under the constant threat of reptiles and wild animals as they living in the open.”

He said the affected families were feeling a lot of uncertainty about their rehabilitation. Sanju, Suresh and Ramesh Chand, other affected persons, have appealed to the administration to provide pucca roofs at safer locations to the displaced families as tents were neither safe nor fit to live.

Local former MLA and Kangra district Congress president Ajay Mahajan, said the state government should immediately take steps to rehabilitate these people by allotting them land and extend financial support for their houses.

Jagdev Singh, Khel pradhan gram panchayat, has also demanded shifting of the displaced families to other accommodation with good living conditions.

Land for houses

The administration has started the process to identify land for the construction of houses for the victims. As no community accommodation is available, they have been advised to shift to the houses of their relatives. Anil Bhardwaj, SDM

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