2 houses declared unsafe in Kupwara

Kupwara, Mar 3:  Two residential houses were declared unsafe by authorities in Nawa Bazaar, Khumriyal in the Lolab area of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district after a major portion of land caved in on Saturday night.

Notably, the plains of the Kupwara district witnessed incessant rainfall for the last two days which caused flash floods in several areas, resulting in severe hardships to the people.

Head of one of the affected families, Altaf Hussain Lone told Greater Kashmir that due to incessant rains and snowfall in the area, the protection wall on the front side of the houses caved in last night, resulting in cracks to one of the houses.

“We were asleep and at about 2 am, we heard a deafening sound, following which we came out of the house and found that the protection wall had caved in. My house has developed cracks and we have been told to stay away from it,” he said. “Although a team of SDRF and revenue officials visited the spot, they locked both the houses and told us to not enter the houses to thwart any eventuality. The land is continuously caving in, making things worse for us. We appeal to the authorities to provide us sandbags so that the caving in of land can be thwarted but to no avail. I think that the houses cannot hold up against the caving-in of land. I believe if an immediate make-shift protection wall is put in place, the damage could be prevented.”

An old bridge was also damaged in Khumriyal area of Lolab. However, traffic was not plying over it after the construction of a new bridge in the area a few years ago.

“This old bridge was used by pedestrians after the traffic was diverted over the new bridge. We found early today that the old bridge has got damaged,” said a resident.

Authorities have appealed to people not to use the damaged bridge anymore.