Earth consumed her sons

Two youngsters die as mud caves in

They were digging foundation hole for temple

In a second such case of mud slide claiming human lives in recent months, two youths of Perumbakkam village situated near Tiruvannamalai buried alive when they were digging pit to lay foundation for a compound wall to Kaliyamman temple on Monday night.
Several people of the village community were voluntarily toiling to dig the pit behind the temple that stands by the tank bund when an avalanche of wet clay from the tank bund slid down the pit entrapping 9 people. Immediately there was a hue and cry. Dark screen of the night marred the rescue. Though Fire and rescue service personnel were given a call, by the time they arrived people have completed all possible rescue measures and found Ayyanar (30) and Kutti@ Elumalai (35) dead.
All the injured persons were immediately rushed to Tiruvannamalai Government hospital and they were said to be stable. District Panchayat president M P Giri, whose own village this is, accompanied injured persons all the way from village to GH. Food Minister E V Velu and SP V Balakrishnan separately visited the hospital and evaluated the condition of the injured persons.
Only months ago, a folk theatre artist of Arpakkam village near here who had engaged in deepening work at a farm well to eke out a living, died when the debris removed from the well which was heaped by the well slid back.. Due to unstable nature of the soil at the site it took police and fire and rescue service personnel a week to retrieve the body.
SP V Balakrishnan who visited the spot, now at Perumbakkam gave his account saying that the tank was only recently deslited under Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the silts removed were dumped on the bund to add strength to it. New soil which yet to set into the core bund gathered wet in the rains, got loosened and slid down when people dug a hole nearby, he said.