– Mohammed Atherulla Shariff
Mysuru: The body of a worker was recovered from the debris of a collapsed building after nine long hours struggle in the wee hours here today.
Saddam Husain, 32-year-old from Azeez Sait Nagar, was one of the 13 labourers trapped under the debris. There labourers were engaged in the dismantling work of doors and windows of the dilapidated portion of the Maharani Women’s College, as part of the work taken up to raze and rebuild the building on heritage lines at an estimated cost of Rs.54 crore on Jhansi Lakshmi Bai Road. Twelve others were lucky enough to rush out of the building on hearing a cracking sound, but Saddam was not so quick to respond and got buried under the debris.
The social service wing of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Karnataka, popularly known as Humanitarian Relief Service (HRS), along with Fire and Emergency Services department personnel conducted the rescue. More than 100 personnel of Fire and Emergency Services department, Police Department, Mysore City Corporation, and HRS members joined to clear the debris and rescue the worker.
The body is learned to have been sighted at around 1.45 am on Wednesday and taken out by the team at around 2 am. The body was sent to the mortuary of Mysore Medical College and Research Institute for post-mortem examination, a rescue team member said.
As the darkness engulfed the area, with electricity supply to the college disconnected to facilitate the rescue work, temporary arrangements had to be made with chargeable lights to continue the search operation. Over six fire tenders had been summoned along with the ambulance, which were stationed throughout the rescue operation.
Eventually, when Hussain was found dead amid the debris, that was cleared with the help of an earth-mover, his body had been cut into two parts, Saddam’s wife Aisha, 7-year-old and 2-year-old daughters, siblings and other relatives waited near the site throughout the search operation, hoping that he would stay alive, but were distraught by the news.
Local MLA K Harish Gowda, Deputy Commissioner G Lakshmikanth Reddy and City Police Commissioner Seema Latkar were present near the building site through the operation.
