Three workers killed as mud caves in during Mission Bhagiratha pipeline works

KOTHAGUDEM : Three workers were killed on Saturday when they got trapped under a huge heap of mud, while working in a 12-feet deep canal fitting pipes as part of Mission Bhagiratha works. The incident took place in Toggudem village in Palvoncha mandal of the district. This is the third incident in the recent past where workers engaged for the government flagship project were killed. According to information reaching here, the workers were hired by the contractor to fix the pipes under 12-feet deep ground.  Pipeline works are going on from the balancing resorvoir in Toggudem village to Jagannadhapuram village in Palvoncha mandal.

On Saturday, Sivaratri Venkateswarlu and another labourer Ravi, were working on the banks of canal while the three deceased were fitting pipes in a 12-feet deep canal. ``It started to rain and suddenly, the loose soil from the ground slipped and huge mounds of mud fell on the trio burying them alive,’’ police said.The other workers and locals removed the soil and brought them out but they were dead by then. The bodies were shifted to area hospital in Palvoncha for postmortem.

The deceased have been identified as Gogula Srinu (24), Gandikota Kotesh (23) and Mekala Pravaeen (24).  Srinu is survived by wife and two children. He is native of Vadderagudem village in Nalgonda district. Kotesh is also native of Vadderagudem and is unmarried. The third deceased Praveen is a native of Dasaigudem in Suryapet town.Bhadradri-kothagudem district collector Rajiv Gandhi Hanumanthu and SP Ambari Kishore visited the spot and inquired about the incident from officials. The contractor hails from Nalgonda district and had brought the labourers from his native district four days back. Palvoncha CI SV Raghavendra Rao said they have started investigation.