JOIN US2 labourers buried alive as earth caves in at construction site
Two construction labourers were buried alive while another was seriously injured in a mudslide in Bhairathi near Kothanur on Thursday morning.
The labourers were digging the foundation for a 12-storey apartment complex planned by a real estate developer.
The deceased are Sharanappa, 45, from Gulbarga, and Chinnappaiah, 50, a native of Chintamani. They were working to construct a 12-storey apartment complex planned by Carbon Developers, a private construction company. Work on the project had begun three months ago.
Labourers dug a 10-foot pit for the foundation and another five feet along its boundary to erect pillars. Around 9 am, six of them began digging on the edges of the foundation to erect pillars.
Sharanappa and Chinnappaiah got into the pit and started removing the mud and passing it out to other labourers standing on its sides.
An hour later, all the labourers standing on the sides of the pit—barring Hussain, 32—went to have water. All of a sudden, the sides of the pit caved in, fully burying Sharanappa and Chinnappaiah. Hussain was buried up to the neck.
Hearing their screams, other labourers rushed to their rescue and managed to pull Hussain out. In the meantime, police were called and they rushed to the spot along with the fire brigade.
But Sharanappa and Chinnappaiah could be pulled out only three hours later. Both had suffocated, police said.
Preliminary investigation has found that Carbon Developers had not obtained the mandatory No Objection Certificate (NoC) from the Fire and Emergency Services, police said.
Sharanappa and wife Annaveeramma had moved to the City just a year ago to work as construction labourers. They lived in a small shed at Bhairathi village.
“He was to work elsewhere but the supervisor asked him to finish some remaining work as they wanted to erect the pillars,” Annaveeramma said. “He went but lost his life.”
Police have registered a case of negligence against the builder.