One labourer dead, six injured; owner of Gurgaon house and contractor go missing, bookedThe latest trend in Gurgaon, of giving a “lift” to houses by a few feet from the ground, claimed its first casualty on Thursday. The roof of a single-storey house collapsed in Madanpuri, killing a labourer and injuring six others.According to eyewitnesses, the accident occurred when one of the seven jacks being installed to keep the raised house steady slipped. The jerk brought down the roof.“When I heard the crash, I thought it was a collision between two vehicles. When I came out, I could only see a cloud of dust and people trying to rescue those trapped underneath the rubble,” said Ram Kalan, a neighbour.“Lifting old houses is a growing trend here and there is no one to check if this practice is violating building norms. We are trying to find out if lifting houses was authorised by the labour department here,” said an investigating officer.Jaidev, owner of the house, and Anil, the contractor from Uttar Pradesh, have been missing since the incident. The police have registered a case against both.According to the police, the house was a few feet below the level of the road. “The labourers looked untrained and hence the accident. It is good they were not lifting the entire house. The accident would have claimed more lives then,” said Kalan.The deceased labourer was Basheer, a resident of UP. “We have sent the body for postmortem and will later hand it over to his family,” said a police officer. The injured are undergoing treatment in the City Hospital here.Earlier this month, a two-storey house in Ghata village was raised by more than 11 feet using similar technology by Mamchand and Sons.
