KTR hits out at Revanth government for not retrieving bodies from tunnel

Hyderabad, Sep 14 (IANS) Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K. T. Rama Rao on Sunday slammed the Congress government in Telangana for "failing" to retrieve bodies of six workers from the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel even 200 days after a portion of the tunnel roof collapsed.

He promised that if BRS returns to power, it will ensure justice to the six families and will "make those who buried the workers pay for it".

"More than 200 days since the Srisailam Left Bank Canal tunnel collapsed, killing 8 hapless workers due to the criminal negligence of the corrupt Revanth government," KTR posted on 'X'.

"This inefficient Congress govt couldn't even retrieve the bodies of 6 victims, and hasn't paid any compensation to the families," he said.

"Shockingly, the Union BJP government, which created hungama by sending the National Dam Safety Authority team over minor issues in the Kaleshwaram Project, didn't send any team to probe the SLBC lapses nor a single question raised by the BJP. Why is BJP Bade Bhai always shielding Congress Chote Bhai in Telangana? What kind of unholy nexus is this?" he asked.

"Let me promise you today, the day BRS comes back to power... we will ensure that all those six families get justice and those who buried those six men alive will pay for it. We will get answers for the SLBC tunnel collapse along with everything that has been destroyed by the Congress," KTR added.

A section of the tunnel roof had collapsed on February 22, trapping eight workers. The bodies of only two workers were found.

The accident occurred about 14 km inside the tunnel when about 50 workers were doing digging work with the help of a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM).

The body of Gurpreet Singh, a TBM operator from Punjab, was recovered on March 9, while the body of project manager Manoj Kumar of Uttar Pradesh was retrieved on March 25.

Bodies of Sri Niwas (Uttar Pradesh), Sunny Singh (Jammu and Kashmir) and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu and Anuj Sahu, all from Jharkhand, could not be retrieved.

--IANS

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