The stone quarry at Kondayanpatti where three workers were killed in a landslip on Thursday had thrown all safety norms for mining to the winds. All that the safety measures provided for the workers involved to drill holes on the hard rock at a height of over 200 feet were just a few ropes.
Only the fatal accident at the quarry some 30 km away from Madurai brought the rampant safety violations to the fore. While Superintendent of Police Vijayendra Bidari ordered immediate cordoning off of the quarry site for investigation, Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao on Friday suspended its five-year licence that was about to expire in November 2016.
“There was absolutely no safety measure whatsoever available at the quarry site,” said Revenue Divisional Officer (Madurai) Senthilkumari.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (Samayanallur) A. Velmurugan said that the entire drilling by the poor labourers was not at all monitored or supervised by any expert. No mining manager, mining mate or foreman was available to properly guide them, he said.
“An official with expertise on mining could have gauged the danger involved in drilling holes with such high-pressure compressors with loose soil above them,” he said.
All was well in quarrying the hill that had homogenous hard rock. However, at the top of the blue metal rock, the hill had large quantity of loose soil. The labourers did not have any knowledge about the heterogeneous nature of the hill at that particular spot and they failed to foresee the impending danger.
Vibration while drilling with high-pressure compressor was suspected to have disturbed the loose soil that caved in within seconds, giving little time for the three workers to flee to safe distance.
Even the mandatory safety measure like marking the quarrying area with red flags was missing.
“The quarry operators had allowed the labourers to take all the risk for the lives and limbs to work without any safety gears at such a height,” the RDO said.
An official said that the workers were not even provided with helmets. Even goggles and masks to cover their eyes and faces from the flying dust while drilling holes were not provided to them.
To top it all, the registers at the office did not have proper recording of the workers employed at the risky spot.
Will the authorities concerned act immediately to prevent recurrence of such accident due to violations of safety norms at other quarries too?
