BENGALURU: A disturbed huge boulder slipped and rolled down from a considerable height crushing 7 labourers of Kaveri,Quarry to death at Madapatna of Magadi taluk in Bengaluru South district on Thursday early morning at around 7.30 am while 5 other labourers sustained serious injuries including fractures in their legs in the boulder collapse incident and were treated at a hospital. Some labourers managed to escape.
Preliminary reports stated a couple of labourers were working at a neighbouring quarry attached to Kaveri Quarry and they are said to have disturbed boulders in their site using machines but accidentally a boulder in the adjacent Kaveri quarry was disturbed after soil loosened and it slipped down the hillock before it fell on the labourers working in the low-lying area.
The rolled boulder came down before labourers in the low-lying area could realize it and 7 labourers were crushed to death instantaneously.
The deceased labourers were identified as Ram Naik, a native of Yadgir in Karnataka, Dharmesh Singh, a native of Chattisgarh, Satyanarayan Gond, a native of Madhya Prasad, Bhuvenshwar Singh, a native of Madhya Pradesh, Rajendra Prasad Choudhary, a native of Madhya Pradesh, Rajesh Prasad a native of Madhya Pradesh and Shivraj Singh, also from Madhya Pradesh. The bodies stuck under the boulder were retrieved.
Injured persons have been identified as Chotu, Gulab Singh, Anand, Nohar Singh and the identity of a labourer in serious condition and undergoing treatment in ICU ward was not established immediately.
One of the labourers of the tragedy hit quarry, an eyewitness stated “Had labourers working in the neighbouring quarry had been alerted that they were disturbing the stones at their site, we would have initiated precautionary measures at our quarry site and the tragedy could have been averted.”
Reacting to the tragedy at the quarry in his Assembly seat, former minister and MLA S.T. Somashekar, representing Yeshwanthpura seat alleged he alerted the officials of Mines and Geology after a pregnant leopard was a victim at the stone quarry but nothing substantial happened so far.
Somashekar wanted a First Information Report (FIR) to be registered against Officials of Mines and Geology, forest officials, Pollution Control Board officials and jurisdictional police officers holding them responsible for the 7 deaths at the quarry site. Officer of Mines and Geology Krishna Veni stated to suspend the quarrying activities in and around the place of tragedy occurred under Tavarekere police station limits.
In Bengaluru, Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar confirmed no blasting took place at the Kaveri Quarry but stated to have sought a report whether the quarry conducted its activities as per rules before initiating action.
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