Rajasthan: Soil caves in during pipeline excavation work; 2 dead, 5 feared trapped
Jaipur(PTI): Two workers died while five others are feared trapped after soil caved in during pipeline excavation work in Rajasthan's Bharatpur on Sunday morning, police said.
According to officials, some labourers were filling a 10-foot-deep trench dug to lay a pipeline near Jangi ka Nagla village when the soil caved in.
Twelve workers got trapped under the soil. Upon hearing the cries, other labourers and project staff started rescue attempts, but the depth and heaviness of the soil made immediate efforts difficult, they said.
District administration, police and disaster management teams reached the site soon after being alerted. The rescue teams used earthmoving machines to remove soil and retrieve the trapped labourers.
They managed to pull out seven labourers, two of whom -- Ankul (22) and Vimla Devi (45) -- died. While five are undergoing treatment at the district hospital, five others are still trapped under the soil, the police said.
The rescue operation is underway.
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Confident we are going to win Kerala: Shashi Tharoor
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday expressed confidence in the victory of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, saying the Congress-led alliance will win more than 75 seats out of the total 140 in the state.
Tharoor, who hails from Kerala, said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls, most of which predicted a victory for the UDF that has been out of power for 10 years in the state.
"We have been on the ground. I have campaigned in 59 constituencies across 12 districts out of 14. I was very confident we are going to win.
"Everything that I have picked up from not just my party colleagues and workers but also from other observers, media and others have always convinced me that we were going to score a comfortable win of above 75 seats. And all the (exit) polls have confirmed the same thing," he told reporters here.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls but in general he was not a big fan of exit polls in India.
"Because ours is not purely a homogenous society. We have to take into account gender issue, caste issue, class issue, regional disparities. You never get a convincingly large enough sample to give an accurate poll and now there is the additional complication that we have heard about in West Bengal this year that many people are unwilling to answer the questions of the pollsters," he said.
The Congress leader said normally, it used to be below 10 per cent that people said that they would not answer.
"Even if you are a reputable exit pollster, in Bengal, one polling company has said 60 per cent of people refused to answer. So, what is the worth of a poll where 60 per cent of your respondents have not answered," he said.
Several exit polls on Wednesday predicted a comeback by the Congress-led UDF in Kerala after 10 years, dethroning the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Polling for the 140-member Kerala assembly was held on April 9. Results of assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Puducherry, besides Kerala, will be announced on May 4.
