5 MGNREGS workers asphyxiated in well

GULBARGA: Five persons, including a gram panchayat member, died due to asphyxiation in an open well that they were desilting under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme at Firozabad, near here, on Tuesday.The deceased were identified as Firozabad GP member Hamid Patel, 35, Chidanand, 28, Basavaraj, 32, Sharanayya Mathapati, 38, and Ayatulla, 23 - all MGNREGS labourers.Gulbarga tahsildar Mahadevaiah Sasnoor, who visited the site, told Express that when the five persons did not come out a few hours after a diesel/kerosene motor pump was used to drain the well, villagers informed the police, Arogya Kavacha ambulances and the fire department. The five were later brought above, who were by then unconscious, and rushed to two hospitals where they were declared brought dead. “As per the preliminary reports, they have died due to suffocation,” the tahsildar said. When asked whether the kin of the deceased would be compensated under the MGNREGS, he said though no such provision exists, the government might consider this as a special case. He said he would submit a report on the incident to the DC. SP Praveen Pawar called on relatives of the deceased. A case of unnatural death was registered at Fartabad Police Station.