Hyderabad manhole death: Drones, boats deployed to find Ananthaiah’s body
HYDERABAD: As the rescue mission to find the body of Ananthaiah, who went missing while cleaning a manhole in Padmavathi Colony, Saheb Nagar of LB Nagar on Tuesday, entered its third day, 300 workers, drone cameras, three boats, four rescue teams from the Disaster Response Force (DRF) and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) were pressed into service.
Meanwhile, retired IPS officer RS Praveen Kumar visited the incident spot on Friday and said that the two SC workers Shiva (feared dead) and Ananthaiah lost their lives due to the negligence of the officials and the contractor. Ananthaiah’s family members were seen pleading with the authorities to retrieve his body.
Responding to the Sahebnagar manhole incident, Praveen Kumar visited the spot and remarked that the lives of sanitation workers don’t matter to the government. He demanded a compensation of `50 lakh to the families of Shiva and Ananthaiah and government jobs for the family members. “The government should take immediate action to prevent such incidents. Manual scavenging is still going on and sanitation workers are forced to enter into the manholes. Many lives have been lost in the past due to manual scavenging,” Praveen Kumar said.
BJP corporators from LB Nagar zone staged a protest at the incident spot and criticised GHMC Commissioner D S Lokesh Kumar for his failure in rescue operations. AICC spokesperson Dasoju Sravan Kumar and other Congress leaders demanded the State government to help the family members of the two SC workers.
Drone cameras were deployed to find the body in the Kuntloor lake and nearby tanks of Hayathnagar. The GHMC engineering wing after digging the stormwater drain upto 100 metres stopped the works midway on Thursday and started searching for the body at the Kuntloor lake as the GHMC authorities feel that the body may have washed away into the lake.