Black May Day: Two labourers buried alive as well caves in at Haleyangady

According to police, the deceased have been identified as Madanappa (22), a resident of Agoli in Gangavathi taluk of Koppala district and Sayyed Beary (65) from Mukka. Beary was the mason. As many as eight labourers were engaged in digging a well in the land belonging to Ravi in Haleyangadi. The well is 20 feet deep and the work on constructing retaining wall was under progress when the incident occurred.

“We had started the work at 9 am and the mud caved in around 10.30 am. Of the six labourers, four of them survived while the two were not so lucky. The two got buried in front of our eyes,” said Hanumantha. The labourers who survived are Madanappa's brother Lokesh, Halappa, Yamunappa and Nagappa. The two other labourers Hanumantha and Yogappa were outside the well helping all those labourers who were inside the well by supplying the materials needed.

The police who swung into action started the rescue operation immediately. It is learnt that no permission was obtained from the Gram Panchayat for digging a well.

As many as 60 labourers who have come from Agoli are mourning the death of their fellow labourers. Normally, the labourers from Koppala come to coastal district in search of job in the month of January. Even these labourers had come in the month of January, fearing drought in their village.

“We have a responsibility to take care of our families. So we work on Sunday as well. We are engaged in construction of house, centring, painting, digging well and so on,” said Hanumantha. “We go back in the month of May with our earnings from coastal district and utilise the money to carry out farm activities. If we fail to work daily, then we can not meet our both ends,” he said.

It was said that Madanappa was married a year ago and is survived by his wife Hoovamma and five-month-old daughter. He was supposed to leave for his native on May 10, to attend the naming ceremony of his daughter, said his brother Lokesh, with tears in his eyes.