PNS|Kadapa
A three-year-old boy was killed when the compound wall of a house caved in on him reportedly due to the blasting at baryte mines at Mangampet Agraharam village in Obulavaripalli mandal of Annamayya district on Wednesday. The victim’s parents villagers staged a dharna with the body. According to reports, the wall caved in on the boy when he was playing with his friends in his house compound.
The boy died instantaneously. The villagers alleged that blasts were carried out at the barytes mines of the Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation (APMDC). The barytes mines are located only 50 m away from the village.
The villagers said that the wall collapsed due to the massive blast at a barytes mine. In protest against the indiscriminate blasting and attributing the death of the boy to the APMDC’s indifference, the parents and relatives of the deceased boy, along with a large number of villagers staged a dharna at the APMDC office. However, the police and the officials pacified the agitating villagers.
As part of expanding the mines quarrying, the village was relocated adjacent to the hill. The villagers have been agitating for the last 10 years demanding that the government relocate their village from the existing danger zone to a safer area. They alleged that the blasting and the mining area were so powerful that the walls of the houses developed cracks and walls collapsed, the agitating villagers told the media.
