The bodies of two contract labourers, who drowned during the immersion of Ganesh idols at Varthur lake on Saturday, were recovered on Sunday afternoon.
The dead labourers were identified as Manjunath (29) and Manjunath (31). They were cousins. They were part of the five-member team assisting citizens to immerse idols at the lake, according to the officials of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).
Soon after the accident, the search operation for the two missing labourers was taken up along with the personnel from the Department of Fire and Emergency Services. However, with nightfall, the officials were forced to postpone the search operation to Sunday morning.
Two suspended
Meanwhile, BBMP Commissioner M. Lakshminarayan suspended two officials — Assistant Executive Engineer Shivalinge Gowda and Assistant Engineer Narayanaswamy — on charge of dereliction of duty.
The two officials, according to sources, had failed to provide the safety gear to the five labourers deployed at the lake. And, they had not ensured that adequate precautionary measures were in place. Sources said that the officials had not ensured that the five labourers were adequately trained.
