Amaravati: The four students who died at the construction site in Guntur had enrolled to work as labourers to be able to finance their education. Degree students, T. Seshu and B. Sunil, and intermediate students, J. Prasanth and B. Babu, used to work as part time construction workers during the summer holidays.
Other students too have been working as unskilled labourers in the construction sector, leading to the current clamorous demand for strict implementation of safety measures at such hazardous workplaces.
The students, V. Hari Babu, J. Prasanth, B. Babu, T. Seshu and B. Sunil, along with workers B. Solomon, B. Rajesh and J. Sudha from Peda Gottipadu village of Prattipadu mandal in Guntur district were hired by a contractor to work in the basement of Phoenix Constructions, promoted by Telugu Desam leader Chukka-palli Ramesh. The workers had refused to work after 5 pm, but according to reports, Ramu, on behalf of Ramesh, offered them extra money to complete the rod bending work for the pillars in the workplace.
They had therefore stayed back. It was then that heaps of soil began to fall and they were all buried under it.
One student, Hari Babu, who was rescued, is undergoing treatment at Guntur General Hospital. Solomon, 22,was scheduled to get married in June, said his distraught family members.
The families of Seshu, Sunil, Prasanth and Babu said that the students, who had been going to the construction site since the past few days, had only four days ago seen a boulder slip and had demanded that the contractor and developer install protective fencing, but in vain.
The boys died such unnecessary deaths in the mishap, trying to earn money for their own betterment through education.
