JHANG City News

3 labourers killed cleaning sewerage line laid to rest
From Our Correspondent
JHANG: Three labourers, who were suffocated to death while cleaning a sewerage line, were laid to rest in their native village on Friday.
Labourers Nisar Ahmad, Haji Ahmed, Allah Ditta and Zawar Hussain, all residents of Jag Roshan Massan, had come to the city to earn a living. They got work of cleaning TMA’s sewerage line of Khaki Shah Road.
The contractor put the four labourers to clean the 25 feet deep sewerage line without provision of any oxygen masks and other safety gadgets. The line had been choked for the last many years.
As they entered the sewerage line, they suffered from lack of oxygen and suffocation. One of them Zawar Hussain, raised alarm for saving their lives but until any help could be provided to them, all the four fell unconscious in the sewerage line.
The locals called Rescue-1122. When they rescuers pulled the victims out of the pipeline, three labourers - Nisar Ahmad, Haji Ahmed and Allah Ditta - had died and Zawar Hussain was unconscious, who was shifted to DHQ Hospital in seriously condition.
The locals alleged that the construction work of road and sewerage line of Khaki Shah Road was awarded to a local contractor five years ago. But due to political tug-of-war between local politicians over the project contact, the TMA failed to get executed the project. However, the contract was not cancelled for five years.
The area people protested against the deaths of three labourers and termed it a negligence of the contractor. They called upon the Punjab government to look into the unfortunate incident.
Neither the TMO of Tehsil Municipal Administration nor the TO (I&S) were ready to comment on the issue.