Hyderabad: A 70-year-old man fell into a seven-foot-deep trench which had been dug for laying a drinking water pipeline in Balanagar on Thursday. Oruganti Chandrashekar Rao was trying to cross the road when he noticed a bus approaching at high speed. He stepped back and into the barricade around the trench. He fell head first into the trench and died on the spot.
Police registered a case against the contractor, who it did not name, and officials of the HMWSSB. While the contractor was not named, the barricades bore the name of Megha Engineering Infrastructure Limited.
Rao, a former operator in a movie theatre and resident of Adarshnagar in Balanagar, was in the habit of visiting the Saibaba temple in IDPL Colony every day.
The temple is located on the other side of the road, and he has to cross the busy IDPL-Balanagar road. On Thursday, police said, he suddenly noticed a private bus coming at high speed and stepped back. He leaned on the iron barricades placed on the road next to the pit.
“It appeared that the barricade was on the edge of the pit and it could not take his weight. The barricade slipped and he fell along with it into the trench,” a fruit vendor who was witness to the tragedy said.
Kin want strong action against waterworks
Another eyewitness who saw him falling alerted an ambulance. He and other passersby jumped into the trench and pulled him onto the street.
Balanagar inspector P. Bikshapathi Rao said that by the time t-he ambulance arrived , Rao was dead. “Based on a complaint from his daughter Karunasri, a case of death due to negligence under Section 304-a of the Indian Penal Code was booked against the contractor and Water Board officials. Based on the evidence we will proceed,” he said, adding that there were no external injuries on Rao’s body.
After the incident, the contractor deployed an earthmover to fill the trench. Three trenches that were left open on a 1.5-km stretch were filled on a warfooting. Rao’s family blamed the incident on the negligence of officials and the contractor and deman-ded strict action agai-nst them. “We have lost our grandfather. A case is booked, but this should not end th-ere. Strict action shou-ld be taken against all those responsible so that nobody will face this situation again,” said Rao’s grandson Santosh.
