The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has charged that the lackadaisical attitude of Madurai Corporation has claimed the life of a worker, R. Satish, whose head was severed by an earthmover which was pressed into service to take him alive from a trench in which loose soil caved in.
“When three workers were asphyxiated in a pumping station recently, engineers claimed that the workers had entered the Corporation premises without their knowledge. Will they make a similar claim now too?,” asked party’s Madurai urban district secretary M. Ganesan.
If the contractor had followed the safety measures incorporated in the contract agreement, the accident could have been averted. Failure on the part of the contractor to use shoring and strutting to prevent loose soil from caving in led to the accident, he said.
The contractor could have avoided it to save expenses at the cost of the life of a worker. “The duty of the engineers is to ensure that all safety measures are in place,” Mr. Ganesan said.
He pointed out that the contractor had not even put up proper barricading and fencing around the dug-up areas to warn pedestrians and vehicle users about the work and the dangers it posed.
