‘Caste census has no sanctity’
The Congress government in Telangana has claimed to have conducted a caste census, and promised to bring a bill to enhance backward classes reservation to 42 per cent.
In a breakthrough, the body of one of the eight trapped workers was brought out in the tunnel boring machine (TBM) at the accident site of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel in Nagarkurnool district of Telangana, 16 days after the roof collapsed, leaving it waterlogged and filled with slush. The cadaver dogs of the Kerala police were brought in once again today, and the body was found with their assistance.
The body was sent for postmortem examination at Nagarkurnool hospital.
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According to an official, it is suspected that the body belongs to one of the workers, Gurpreet Singh, from the bracelet on the hand. However, a DNA test will be conducted to confirm his identity. An ambulance has been kept ready near the tunnel to transport the remains. Family members of the trapped workers are agonisingly waiting at Achampet, a nearby town in the Nagarkurnool district.
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Three more workers are suspected to be buried nearby, as indicated by the cadaver dogs as well as the images from the ground penetrating radar. However, digging out the remains poses tough challenges not only because of the advanced state of decomposition of the bodies but also because the last 50 metres of the tunnel is quite unstable due to the seepage of water. The scientists from the Geological Survey of India warned the rescue team about the risk posed by the tunnel. The metal debris, slush, and lack of oxygen made rescue difficult.
Rat miners and workers of the Singareni Colliery were engaged in the task of retrieving the bodies buried under slush and metal debris of the TBM machine. Two engineers and six workers were trapped when the accident occurred on 22 February inside the 14-km-long tunnel.
Two cadaver sniffer dogs, Maya and Murphy, of the Belgian Malinois breed, along with 157 rescue team workers and technical experts, went into the tunnel this morning. The dogs were flown in on an army helicopter on March 7 from Kerala after all efforts to trace the trapped workers proved futile since they can sniff out decayed remains buried deep under the earth.
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