Cracks of despair: Nurpur families lose homes to collapsing building

Incessant rain triggered a major landslide and land subsidence in Nurpur town’s Niazpur locality, leaving five families homeless after their three-storey building developed massive cracks on Sunday.

The building, located in Ward No. 9, has sunk dangerously, with walls, roof and corridors showing deep fissures. Authorities have warned that the entire structure is on the verge of collapse. The affected families — Rajiv, Rahul, Pankaj, Sanjay and Kannu — who had invested lakhs of rupees in constructing their homes, were forced to vacate and take temporary shelter with neighbours.

On Monday, the Nurpur SDM inspected the site and directed the Municipal Council to prepare a detailed damage assessment. The report has been submitted to the Deputy Commissioner, Kangra, for further action. Meanwhile, former local MLA Ajay Mahajan met the displaced families, assuring them of compensation and immediate relief. He has also requested the DC to expedite disbursement of financial aid.

This disaster has revived memories of September 2019, when 17 below poverty line (BPL) Scheduled Caste families in the same locality lost their homes to a massive landslide. For nearly six years, those families remained in uncertainty due to bureaucratic hurdles before finally being allotted four marlas of government land each this July in Ward No. 6 for rebuilding.

For the newly displaced families, the ordeal has just begun. With monsoon rains continuing, their hopes now rest on prompt administrative support to prevent their loss from stretching into years of waiting, as happened with the earlier victims.