A manual worker was washed away while clearing the garbage that blocked the flow of water in a drain at Nalabazar near Patny in Secunderabad on Thursday. Two other workers involved in the drain clearance managed to save themselves.
The body of the worker, identified as Devaraju, was found half-a-kilometre away near Kalasiguda after a five-hour frantic search.
The clogged drain runs in the open for some distance and crosses the Patny–Bata stretch. With the garbage getting stuck obstructing the flow of water, the road was getting water-logged near Chitra Dargah leading to traffic jams. The GHMC officials engaged some workers on Thursday morning to clear the obstacles.
The labourers drilled holes on the road and were removing the garbage. Three of them lowered themselves through the holes to physically pick up the garbage. However, as they removed a large chunk of it, water pressure built up and Devaraju was swept away.
Chandraiah and Ravi, the other two workers, managed to cling onto a slab and escape. “It happened all of a sudden,” Babu Rao, an eyewitness said.
A woman worker who was collecting the retrieved garbage too fell inside, but locals managed to grab her by the hair and pull her out, police said.
Keywords: Labourer, storm water drain, clogged drain
