E-Paper
Six killed as wall collapses due to rains in Pandharpur
20-feet high wall came down when the temple town in Solapur district received heavy rains throughout the day
Six people were killed on Wednesday after a wall at an under construction ghat on Bhima river collapsed in Pandharpur due to heavy rains, officials said.
The 20-feet high wall came down when the temple town in Solapur district received heavy rains throughout the day. Among those died have been identified as Mangesh Abhangrao (35), Radha Abhangrao (50), Gopal Abhangrao (70) and Pillu Jagtap (13). The authorities were trying to ascertain identifies of the other two deceased, officials said.
Solapur district received over 138mm rainfall in 36 hours starting Tuesday morning, leading to waterlogging and flood-like situation as several small and medium streams began overflowing. As heavy rains lashed the region, irrigation department officials started releasing water from Ujani dam, located on the Pune-Solapur border, at 1,00,000 cusecs by around 4pm into Bhima river that passes through Pandharpur.
“Due to the heavy rains since the past 18 hours, the wall next to the ghat, currently being developed, collapsed. The administration has so far recovered six bodies while the search is on for one more person. There may be a possibility of pilgrims taking shelter near the wall due to heavy rain. So, we have continued our search operation,” said Sachin Dhole, sub-divisional officer, Pandharpur.
Following the incident, Solapur district guardian minister Dattatray Bharane announced inquiry into the incident and possible action against those responsible for the wall collapse.
Solapur superintendent of police Tejaswi Satpute said that an inquiry has been launched into the incident and once the report is submitted, further action will be taken. “We have asked the engineer to carry out a preliminary inquiry to ascertain if the construction of the ghat carried out by contractor was at fault. Once the inquiry is complete, we will decide the next course of action,” said Satpute. The ghat was essentially being used by the local people for cremation while those died in the incident were staying there in shanties, according to Satpute.
Recently former corporator from Pandharpur Ramesh Kamble had sought inquiry into inferior construction material being used to build the ghat and had demanded action against the contractor.
