Karnataka - Bangalore   

Labourer killed in debris collapse

Staff Reporter

Tragic: A watchman showing the debris at the construction site, which came down crashing killing a labourer and injuring two others at Mahadevapura Industrial area in Bangalore on Tuesday.

BANGALORE: Twenty-six-year-old labourer Santhosh was crushed to death and two others injured, when the debris of an old demolished building collapsed on them at Garudacharpalya in the Mahadevapura Industrial Estate here on Tuesday afternoon.

Santhosh and the other victims, Ramaiah (40) and Lakshman (25), were erecting a pillar column on the same site where a new factory building was to come up. The builders had left a portion of the floor of the older building intact and dug up the earth below to erect the pillar.

At about 4.45 p.m., when the labourers were working on the columns, the old floor came crashing down.

While Ramaiah and Lakshman managed to escape, Santhosh died on the spot. Efforts of the fire force personnel and other labourers to rescue him were in vain. Lakshman who suffered dislocation of his limbs and Ramaiah with a minor injury were shifted to a nearby private nursing home.

A native of Deodurg in Raichur, Santhosh had joined work at the site about a month ago along with about 40 others, all settled with their families in makeshift tents close by.

Santhosh’s wife and two daughters, one aged three and another six, were in Hebbal.

The workers, hired for Rs. 110 a day, apparently did not take the danger posed by the jutting floor seriously.

“We never thought it would fall. There was no sign at all. We did not hear the supporting mud fall. In a flash, the whole thing was down,” recalled Nagesh, who had been cutting one of the columns just an hour before.

Still in shock, the workers and their families were not aware of any compensation.

The mason, Venkatesh, who was also the brother of the deceased Santhosh, was busy running around to get the body after the post-mortem.

The Mahadevpura police have registered a case and are investigating.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

When that roof overhead moves further away
Schools yet to come to grips with court order
Green belt area shrinks to 419.50 square km of Bangalore Metropolitan Area
The city is witnessing a vertical growth
Bangalore today
Waiting for decades for a site
Scouting for a symbol
A little care can keep backache away
Labourer killed in debris collapse
Challenging task ahead for new BBMP chief
High Court takes VTU to task for not sticking to norms
Five persons commit suicide in city Crime notes
Bloomers in school textbook
Only 11.26 acres of recovered land auctioned
State lays claim to disputed land
We are not naxal backers: vedike
Enterprising solution
Engineering seats
Encroachment: 429 arrested
Free eye camp
Action to be taken against officials
Congress to form fact-finding panel

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu