Hyderabad: In less than 19 days of the previous fatality, the city has reported another trench death. Thirty-year-old JCB driver and labourer, Tagaram Mallesh, was widening the storm-water drain at Jyothinagar-Malkajgiri, when the drain’s retaining wall collapsed onto him and he fell into the very trench he had just dug. He died on the spot.

The incident happened on Tuesday afternoon adjacent to TS Seeds Corporation, and in the absence of the GHMC-approved contractor, Chandra Shekar Reddy.

Work was shabby, say residents
Deputy Municipal Commissioner Malkajgiri circle, Mohan Reddy, confirmed that while Mallesh was digging the trench to widen the storm water drain, the nala’s retaining wall collapsed on him as the soil was soft. He said compensation will be given by the contractor. Another worker was injured, but not seriously.

Daniel James, a resident of Jyothinagar-Malkajgiri, who has been observing the ongoing work, said that the digging was being done in a haphazard manner.

“The contractor and the workers have been doing shabby work; the soil is dumped on the road side. They have been constructing retaining walls and breaking them later, no concrete waste was lifted.”

Such incidents will continue to happen unless contractors are heavily punished for careless work that costs people their lives.

It may be recalled that on March 23, 2017 Oruganti Chandrashekar Rao, 70, fell through the barricades into a trench dug by Megha Engineering Infrastruc-ture Limited at Balanagar. The case is under investigation.

In November 2016, an eight-foot sinkhole opened at Malkajgiri T-Junction, and three motorists had a narrow escape. The contractor, Indian Hume Pipe, was fined but no case has been booked.

In June 2016, a 24-year-old hotel worker drowned in a storm water-filled trench dug by HMWS&SB-appointed contractor GSK, at Ayyappa Society in Madhapur. The Board merely blacklisted the contractor.