Collapse of Structure at Medaram Temple Costs 7-Year-Old His Leg

Warangal: The son of Sammakka Temple priest Siddaboina Ramesh has had to undergo amputation of his leg after a stone slab installed as part of recent beautification of the shrine loosened and fell on him on March 25. The boy Yuvin had been playing near the sanctum sanctorum at the time.

The permanent harm to the priest’s son is being blamed on substandard construction and restoration works carried out during the recent Medaram Maha Jatara. The incident has evoked anger against the state administration and the contractors involved.

The heavy stone had crushed the boy's lower limbs. He had been initially rushed to Mulugu Government Hospital and later shifted to a private hospital in Hanamkonda for specialised surgery. Despite multiple attempts to save it, doctors had to amputate his left leg from below the knee on Thursday night due to a complete lack of blood circulation. His right leg has been stabilised with a surgical rod.

The incident has put up a question mark over the quality of overall Jatara works taken up at a cost of ₹251 crore. While the state government had claimed that it completed the development works at the temple within an unprecedented timeframe, temple authorities and devotees had flagged concerns about the structural stability of the works carried out as early as February.

They allege that the beautification is merely superficial, with stone pillars and slabs showing signs of damage within weeks of the festival's conclusion.

The victim’s family and locals have accused the government of keeping the severity of the incident under wraps. They say heavy police presence had been there at the hospital to prevent the news of amputation reaching the media or the priests’ community.

Although Panchayat Raj minister Danasari Seethakka Anasuya visited the family on Wednesday to offer support, the distraught parents have questioned why their child must pay the price for administrative negligence. “Who is responsible for my son’s permanent disability,” the boy’s grieving mother questioned, as family members lashed out at the substandard nature of the stone structures.

Locals are demanding a high-level inquiry into the allotment of the contract and quality checks performed as part of Medaram works. They say the Rajiv Gandhi Township and other Jathara-related infrastructures must be audited to prevent such a tragedy from recurring in future.