Death toll climbs to 10 in Jammu and Kashmir tunnel collapse

Nine bodies were pulled out from the rubble of a landslide which hit one end of an underconstruction tunnel on the JammuSrinagar national highway two days ago taking the death toll in the incident to 10 on Saturday officials saidWith the bodies of all the missing workers recovered the twoday rescue operation ended late on Saturday evening Three persons who survived were taken to hospital by the rescuers shortly after the incident on the intervening of Thursday and FridayEarlier the officials had said that a portion of the underconstruction tunnel at Khooni Nallah in Ramban district collapsed soon after the work on the project startedBut on Saturday the deputy commissioner of Ramban Mussarat Islam quoted the National Highway Authority of India NHAI to say that a landslide had hit the mouth of the adit tunnel to T4As clarified by NHAI it is informed that there is no tunnel collapse near Khooni Nallah A slide occurred on the mouth of the adit tunnel to T4 on Thursday night under which a labourer component of concessionaire company was working Operation continues Islam tweetedThe body of one person was recovered on Friday while three others including two locals were rescued and are stableOfficials said that on Saturday another body was pulled out after several hours of intense search It took the rescuers over two hours to pull out the body from under the rocksEight more bodies were later pulled out and shifted to hospital the officials said adding the labourers were crushed to death by the falling bouldersBodies of all the missing workers were recovered from the scene of the landslide outside the mouth of adit tunnel during the daylong hectic search by the rescuers While one body was recovered on Friday and three rescued nine more bodies were found on Saturday the deputy commissioner told PTIIslam said all the bodies have been sent to a government hospital for identification and other legal formalitiesHe said an immediate ex gratia of Rs 25000 from the Red Cross fund and Rs 25000 from the company is being given to kin of two local labourers who are among the dead The rest of the dead include workers from West Bengal Nepal and AssamThe operation to rescue the trapped workers was launched soon after the incident but had to be suspended on Friday evening due to a fresh landslide and inclement weatherOver 15 rescuers including the Station House Officer of Ramsu police station NayeemUlHaq had a narrow escape during this time officials saidSenior Superintendent of Police Ramban Mohita Sharma said an FIR was registered in the local police station in connection with the incidentPolice have registered a case under IPC Sections 287 negligent conduct with respect to machinery 304A causing death by negligence 336 endangering life or personal safety of others and 337 causing hurt by an act of endangering life or personal safety of others of the IPC officials saidHowever no one was arrestedSenior CPIM leader and former MLA M Y Tarigami demanded a judicial probe into the incident and Rs 40 lakh compensation for the kin of the deceasedThis is not an ordinary incident There seems to be criminal negligence A judicial inquiry should be ordered to probe the horrific incident so that the guilty are identified and brought to justice he said in a statementTarigami who is the Jammu and Kashmir unit president of CITU said Reportedly NHAI had handed over the execution of the work of this patch to SIGAL company which in turn handed it over to a littleknown sublet SARLA which is reportedly a software company and not technicalJammu and Kashmir Congress president G A Mir also demanded an inquiry into the incident and adequate compensation for the kin of the deceasedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever