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1 dead, 5 injured due to boulder slide at Hatti gold mines in Raichur
One dead and four injured in a mudslide at Hatti gold mines in Raichur district. Labourers protest lack of safety measures and demand compensation.
Belagavi: Early on Friday morning at the Hatti gold mines (HGM) in the Lungasur taluk of the Raichur district, a mud and boulder slide resulted in the death of one labourer and the injuries of four more, police said.
The slide happened around 3am during the night shift at unit 3, known as Mallappa shaft, a deep underground unit where workers operate about 2000 feet below the surface, The Raichur superintendent of police, Uttam Mahadevaiah informed the press.
“The deceased, identified as 38-year-old Mounesh Amarappa, along with the injured—Shivaraj Veerappanna, Parushram Hanasanna, Budeppa Hanumant, Rangaswamy Venkatesh, and Hanumantraya Medinapur—were all field laborers. The injured have been taken to various hospitals: Gold mines hospital at Hatti, Kaveri hospital in Bengaluru, and KLES Hospital in Belagavi,” he said.
In response, labourers boycotted work and protested under the banner of the labour union CITU and SC-ST factions, demanding strict action against the officials responsible for the negligence of safety norms. Protesters claimed that despite numerous memorandums and verbal warnings about the potential for such disasters, authorities failed to take preventive measures.
“Hundreds of labourers work around the clock in multiple tunnels, with land explosives being a routine part of their process to reach deeper levels. The regular blasts loosen boulders, posing a constant threat to workers,” Mahantesh Kallur, a Raichur district CITU office bearer, said recognising the lack of adequate protective gear. He further said that laborers are only provided with lightweight helmets.
Kallur also highlighted the poor living conditions of HGM labourers, who reside in a company-established colony lacking basic amenities. The high-security nature of HGM restricts workers from interacting with outsiders, effectively isolating their concerns from wider society. “The security in HGM is akin to that of currency printing locations, which prevents the voices of innocent labourers from reaching society at large,” Kallur added.
The protest by the labour union and SC-ST associations included a demand for financial compensation of ₹50 l lakh for the deceased’s family and ₹10 lakh for each injured worker. The protest was called off after district administration officials assured them of the highest possible relief for the victims.
“Trusting the district administration, the labourers called off the stir, and we will try our best to provide the highest relief to the victims,” SP Uttam Mahadevaiah stated.
Inspector Honakerappa, head of the Hatti gold mines police station, confirmed that the post-mortem and last rites of Mounesh Amarappa were conducted under high security and that the labor organization CITU was expelled from the HGM zone during this process.
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