SHIVAMOGGA: Their sole intention was to earn enough to meet the basic requirements of their families. Manjunath (35) and Praveen (36) did just that till the massive explosion at a quarrying unit at Hunasodu village in Shivamogga taluk cut their lives short on Thursday night.
Both were from Antaragange camp in Bhadravathi taluk. Of them, Manjunath had a child, a boy, just a few days ago, and was yet to name him. His brother-in-law Siddappa told The New Indian Express, "We did not know what kind of work he was doing. But he was managing his family. His wife Supreeta was at her mother’s house in Mysuru when the incident occurred. She rushed back to Hunasodu the next day. Their daughter, Hamsa, is six years old."
"Manjunath had studied till fifth standard. He and his mother Lakshmamma worked as farm labourers at fields around Bhadravathi till recently. We don’t know when he moved to Shivamogga to take up this high-risk job. His neighbours too are shocked. He was a nice person," he said.
Praveen's family was too shocked to talk about the incident. When asked, they only said, "Namagenu gottilla (We don’t know anything)."
Three others who died in the incident -- Pavankumar (29), Javid (28) and Chelimanu Raju (24) -- were from Rayadurga of Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh. All these young labourers were sole breadwinners of their families.
The government announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to each their families. But that is not enough, the families rue. "Most of us did not know the risks involved in the work they did. Now that we have lost our main earners, will the stone-crushing unit that hired them help us," they asked.