A 50-year-old ragpicker drowned in a pit dug up in a storm water drain while trying to cross it at Kumbaragundi near Silver Jubliee Park (SJP) police station in Kalasipalyam on Friday afternoon.
A 50-year-old ragpicker drowned in a pit dug up in a storm water drain while trying to cross it at Kumbaragundi near Silver Jubliee Park (SJP) police station in Kalasipalyam on Friday afternoon.
The ragpicker, whose identity is yet to be established, was carrying a huge bag of scrap material when he fell into the 15-feet-deep ditch, filled with sewage water to a depth of 10 feet.
Onlookers threw a rope to help the ragpicker get out of the water. But the poor man could not let go of the scrap material he had collected, and although he reached for the rope with one hand, he tried to hold on to his bag with his other hand. He could not get a firm grip on the rope, and was drowned.
The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had undertaken work to remodel the drain three years back. The work remained incomplete. A huge pit had been dug up in the drain as part of the remodelling work and was abandoned mid-way.
The drain was not barricaded, and the ragpicker could not have assessed its depth.The police immediately fished out the body, which was shifted to Victoria Hospital for autopsy.
Dharmaraya temple ward corporator P Dhanaraj said that for three years, he had been complaining to chief engineer (storm water drains) ML Muniswamy to finish the drain work or erect a barricade near the ditch. He blamed the BBMP engineers for Friday’s accident.
He said he would trace the dead man’s kin and try to get BBMP pay compensation to them.Munikrishna confirmed that the BBMP had taken up the remodelling of the storm water drain at Kumbaragundi.
Even though the BBMP had erected several barricades in the area, people were pulling them down and erecting makeshift bridges to cross over to the other side.
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