Granite quarry used explosives illegally

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Fire and Rescue Services personnel on Friday recovered the bodies of the workers who were trapped under rocks in a granite quarry at Madhapuram, near Vembayam, on the outskirts of the city.The Fire and Rescue Services personnel had to use heavy duty machines to remove the rocks to recover the bodies.The deceased Babu, Chandran and Murukesh were trapped under the rocks when they blasted  rocks using explosives. Incidentally, the quarry did not have permission to use explosives. It took over 30 officials and machinery from the three units of the Fire and Rescue Services in Thiruvananthapuram, Attingal and Varkala to recover the bodies trapped under huge mass of earth and rocks. The rescue operations that lasted around 15 hours were carried out under the supervision of F&RS technical director K SIvanandan, divisional officer E V Prasad, assistant divisional officer Reny Lukose, station officer Suvi M S and Venjarammoodu Circle Inspector Sreekumar. The bodies were taken to the Medical College Hospital here for post-mortem. Babu hailed from Madhapuram near Vembayam and Chandran from Thenmala. Murukesh was a migrant labourer from Tamil Nadu who later settled at Thenmala. The police have taken into custody Sainulabdeen, the contractor of the quarry. The police said that even though the quarry had the licence issued by the Geological Department, it did not have the licence to use explosives.