12 Farmworkers die as tractor plunges into a canal in Telangana

At least 12 farmworkers feared dead as the tractor they were travelling plunged into Alimineti Madhava Reddy Canal early on Friday morning. The tractor was carrying 30 farm workers at the time of the accident. So far nine bodies have been fished out of the deep waters of the canal.

According to Nalgonda district police who are overseeing the rescue operations at the accident site, the tractor which is taking chilli farmworkers, many of them women from Padamati Tanda (Hamlet) to Pulicherla plunged into the canal near Vaddipatla of PA Palli block of the district.

Eyewitnesses say that the driver of the tractor lost control and landed into the canal. Local villagers rushed to the spot and helped in pulling out the survivors. While the search for more bodies is going on police fear that the death toll might increase.

Last month ten farmworkers who were travelling in a cramped autorickshaw in Nizamabad district of the state died when the auto landed in an open agricultural well. The auto driver who was trying to fetch the cap of his water bottle while negotiating a deep curve near an agricultural farm lost control over the vehicle resulting in the death of innocent people.