Inchara Udupi
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi
Udupi, Feb 27: In a tragic incident, two labourers got buried alive under a pile of mud while digging the road to lay pipelines and manhole at Kaup here on Tuesday February 27 evening.
The deceased have been identified as contract labourers Dasappa (49) and Umesh (41), both natives of Chitradurga.
They were working on a project to lay pipelines and manhole. The work was being undertaken by Deviprasad Constructions at a cost of Rs 3 crore released by the Karnataka Water Supply and Drainage Board.
It is learnt that the hole to lay the pipelines had already been dug, and the two labourers were standing on either side of it, measuring the total area that was dug up. Vehicles were passing as usual on the remaining part of the road.
Sources said that due to the movement of heavy vehicles, the pile of loose mud disintegrated. The two labourers lost balance and fell into the ditch and got buried under the mud.
As soon as they fell in, efforts were made to rescue them with the help of a JCB. However, fearing that it would cause injury to the labourers, people manually removed the mud and tried to rescue the duo.
Kaup Soori Shetty, actor Rajesh Alape, timber merchant Suresh Shetty, council member Anil Kumar and others rushed to the spot and with the help of other labourers managed to bring out the two men after about 30 minutes of consistent efforts. The two were rushed to hospital by ambulance where they were declared brought dead.
The ground-level work was being carried out by sub-contractor Nagaraj, and it is alleged that no safety precautions were taken.
Kaup MLA Vinay Kumar Sorake, former MLA Lalaji Mendon, Congress district president Naveenchandra Shetty and other local leaders visited the spot.
Additional police commissioner Kumarchandra, Kaup circle inspector Halamurthy Rao and other police personnel are conducting investigations.