3 of a family buried in Chamba house collapse

Dalhousie, August 20

Three members of a family were buried alive when their house collapsed at Chudana village in the Banet area of Bhattiyat tehsil in Chamba district due to heavy rain on Friday night.

Deputy Commissioner, Chamba, DC Rana said today that the deceased had been identified as Chamaru Ram (42), his wife Meenu (38) and their 11-year-old son Ajay Kumar. He added that an interim relief of Rs 30,000 had been disbursed to the next of kin of the deceased.

He said major roads, including the Chamba-Pathankot highway No. 153-A and the Chamba-Shimla via Jot road linking the district headquarters, had been damaged in Bhattiyat and Dalhousie areas.

He added that about 100 roads in the district had been damaged at different places, mainly in Salooni and Bhattiyat areas. The PWD was making efforts to restore the damaged roads to traffic, but continuous rain was hampering work.

Rana said that 290 transformers of the Electricity Department and about 75 supply schemes of the Jal Shakti Department had also been damaged due to heavy rain. He added that as a precautionary measure, all educational institutions in Dalhousie, Sihunta and Chowadi areas had been closed. Moreover, the Deputy Director, Higher and Elementary Education, had been directed to keep all educational institutions closed in areas that witness continuous heavy rainfall.

He said the water level in rivers and streams had risen.