S.R. RAMAKRISHNA writes from Bangalore: One of India’s most shameful engineering failures went almost unnoticed because the site is located far from our media hubs, and perhaps also because it killed only poor people.
You would have expected the Anegundi bridge collapse and the subsequent rescue attempts to have made it to prime time national news at least because it occurred near Hampi, a world heritage site supervised by the Unesco, but not many from the media were at the site when the first body was fished out on Saturday.
As a MiD DAY team watched, the rescue team reported a breakthrough, some 40 hours after the suspension bridge had crashed.
The rescuers have found seven bodies so far. People suspect many more were crushed when the bridge fell at 3 pm last Thursday. A district reporter said he had photographed the bridge just two hours before the accident, and had found about 15 men working. That could mean at least half a dozen workers are still trapped under the bridge.
Policemen in coracles pulled the first body by its hair, and rowed to the bank opposite where we stood. The site is in Koppal, a district carved out recently from Bellary. Anegundi is just 5 km from Hampi.
Hampi is an overnight journey from Bangalore. Like in Mumbai, the slumdog-millionaire contrast is stark in the Bellary region. While mining boomed, this dusty city was selling the largest number of luxury cars in India, and the Reddys, who own mines here, are worth more than the GDP of some small Indian states.
When MiD DAY tried to call tourism minister G. Janardhana Reddy, famous as the richest politician in Karnataka, we only reached his staff, who gave us numbers that turned out duds. He just did not come on the phone, though we tried all afternoon and evening.
Almost all prominent miners here are active in politics. They own fleets of aircraft, and could put Mumbai’s celebs in the shade when it comes to living it up.
By contrast, Rasool Sab, a casual worker who served the public works deparment for 22 years, earned Rs 1,500 a month. He is suspected dead, and the eldest two of his five children paced the banks waiting for the rescue team to find his body.
Not a single politician went to the spot the day the bridge came crashing down, and relief took a long time coming. In fact, we heard horror stories about what had happened when a swimmers’ team was called from Bellary.
They arrived by bus, and demanded that they be insured. The babus went into a tizzy. Who would insure them? The irrigation department? The PWD? The district administration? And in any case, shouldn’t rescue workers be insured all the time? And as the poor died, no miner thought it fit to send a plane to airlift rescue workers to the accident site.
K. Virupakshappa, MP from Koppal, blamed the contractors for the tragedy. “A day before the accident a cable holding up the hanging bridge snapped. They continued work after welding it. If they had taken proper measures, they could have averted this accident,” he told MiD DAY.
The government has not initiated any action against the contractors. District in-charge minister Govind M. Karjol said, “No one could have survived the collapse because the water is 180 feet deep,” he told MiD DAY. “The workers went down with the huge slab, and once in water, they would have died in less than 10 minutes.”
The government has declared Rs 1 lakh as compensation for each bereaved family, but the poor neighbourhood is wondering how much of it will reach the right hands, and when.
This report originally appeared in Mid-Day, used with kind courtesy
Additional reporting by Madhusudan Maney
Photograph: courtesy The Hindu
The number — 7, may be due to their names entered in the register.
Isn’t there a possibility of many lives being lost?
Those labourers who are non-existent according to the books, who were cheated before and after death.
yes this can happen only in india where corruption is everything.I am a civil engineer working in dubai for past 5 years here the authorities take atmost care and the security of each and everyone including labours,Presence of male nurse is a compulsory law here,without any Supporting Environment there are fine and safety buildings here there are buildings and villas constructed in sea also because here there is no compromise in building materials and other construction materials and zero percentage of corruption greed for money and lack of honesty is the main cause for these type of disasters in india.
Political and bureaucratic arrogance! What can really shake these people up?
Am I only who fears every time I am on cable bridge at KR Puram in Bengaluru? It is the same state of affairs every where even though Bengaluru is a media hub ‘the media’ just reacts to incidents and makes huge cry till they get hold of the next story.
Well, the indifference can be measured by the number of comments too.
But i don’t accept the comment about dubai. National geographic made a great analysis of the human cost involved in dubai’s rapid growth and the suffering wrought on the construction workers.
One tragic example: Arumugam Venketesan, a 24-year-old Indian national, worked for a manpower supply company. ‘Construction Week’ reported that “the company that brought him to Dubai was being paid between $4 and $5.50 per hour for the labor they supplied to contractors. But this company passed on only 80 cents per hour to its workers.”Venketesan’s suicide note is an eye-opening account of his daily struggles in the face of exploitation:
“I have been made to work without any money for months. Now, for a month I’ve been suffering from a constant headache and wanted to visit a doctor to examine my condition. I asked my camp boss for US$14 but he refused and told me to get back to work… After my death I want the company to pay all my salary dues to my family and repay the financial debt my family has incurred because of them.”
taken from : http://dictionaryofwar.org/node/722
Regarding the media angle…
The so called “National media” is only north centric.
They want to report DDA site allotments, school openings, closures, college issues about “Delhi”, but not concerned about other parts of country.
Some times they want to sensationalize issues like “Prince’s fall and rescue from borewell” if they are conveniently located for their vans to reach the place.
To project themselves as “National” they bring up some ridiculous issues from “Bangalore”. Even when they report about Bangalore, they might sometime use “Northeners” who lack the basic understanding of issue which they are talking about(example Dr.Raj’s death etc) Since they lack understanding of subject their reporting is not accurate or projects wrong image of “Down south” as “always down”.
They want to project a new “Rajni movie” and make a mockery of the subject. Show the worst snippets from movie, and make an impression all movies down south are like the same.
Shame on news channels who call themselves “National”
Atleast, NDTV is somewhat better. In the name they announce themselves as “New Delhi” TV.
Srikanth:
One more whiner against the media. Can you tell me which are the three biggest news items in the English media today?
1) “Mangalore Outrage”
2) Chennai protests, immolation and violence in support of Lankan Tamils.
3) Pakistan’s protests against US drone attacks.
Watch the media in an unbiased fashion for a couple of weeks, and write in a notebook, what the news items are each day. Then lets have the statistics, and we will see about ‘North Bias’.
This is expected of a corrupt government. The comments by us on this forum are also expected as we are a nation of gutless people who can sit in debates, write blogs, discuss endlessly about the pitiful state of our country, but have anyone of us done anything to improve the state of affairs. The least we can do is vote properly, that too a majority of us fail to do.
The bigger issue is not what Janardhan Reddy & Co did, but what did we as people of Karnataka do about this. It is very easy to compare with other countries and ridicule the state of affairs in India, but those who are doing so, what have they done to make our country a better place. I am sure it is close to nothing. The sad part is that this is true with the educated class and not so much with the uneducated class. How many of white collar workers in our country are ready to devote some time in improving things. I am sure no one has the time. But a large percentage of them are willing to do anything to live in a developed country and make fun of India from there. What happens in a country of such people is such a government. So I suggest that we don’t blame the government or media or anyone. If we have to blame someone it is ourselves and rather than doing that it is better to take some action.
AnotherOne:
“Am I only who fears every time I am on cable bridge at KR Puram in Bengaluru”
No, you’re not alone, sometimes I feel a bit scared too. Try going on the BDA junction Magic Box near Windsor Manor, it is even more ‘scary’!!
I was appalled to see that Deccan Herald did not even publish the news the day after. It later published follow on news. How Callous!! Esp for a newspaper that has its base only in karnataka.
What are the Vasanti Hariprakashs and the DP satishs and the Mayasharmas doing in “national” media, I wonder?? Maybe it is not fashionable to go to a place with an “unfashionable” name like Aanegondi?
Shame on all of them!!
The only brighter side of the collapse itself is that if as UNESCO had said the bridge would have caused damage to the Hampi monuments, it is better off collapsin than standing.
DP Satish is giving breathless account of the Mangalore Pub incident to really bother about this.
Same with Churumuri… 8 articles about Mangalore and Pub culture and 1 about Anegudi.
The rights of women to booze in bars is more serious than stray incidents of loss of lives. Lives are less important. Bridges do not matter; bars do.
Vinay – the “great protector of media”. It is unbelievable that you cannot see the unprofessionalism of media in the country. Anyway follow the two links below and smell the rot in the Indian media, especially the “national” variety:
http://ckunte.com/archives/withdrawal
http://retributions.nationalinterest.in/ndtvs-assault-on-free-speech/
adkkyake aascharya padthira. It is common in India. Last year one bridge in Goa collapsed like Mysore Pak. In a country where curruption is at its height, you cannot expect quality. Such things keep happening and when it happens, newpapers show photo and forget.