Corpn worker falls into open drain, dies

A 54-year-old contract sanitation worker of Vellore Corporation died on Friday after accidentally falling into an open sewage drain near Makkan Signal on Bengaluru Road. The deceased, M Murugan, a resident of Perumal Nagar in Keelmonavoor had been working in the corporation for last 15 years.

- DHEEPTHI OJ

The incident took place at around 5.30 pm on Friday. While the police denied that Murugan was cleaning the drain, shopkeepers on the road told TNIE they saw Murugan removing waste from the drain without wearing any safety gear. K Allauddin, a shopkeeper who runs a xerox shop just off the spot where the incident took place, said, "He was picking up litter from the drain. He fell inside when he tried to cross it to come to the other side of the drain." Other sanitary workers quickly rescued him and rushed him to a GH in Adukkamparai where doctors declared him brought dead. Sources said two other contract workers were working with him to clean the four-and-a-half feet wide drain which was filled with rainwater up to its brim. The drain would be