Simhachalam tragedy: was the wall built of paper, ask angry kin of deceased

Relatives of P. Uma Maheswara Rao and his wife Sailaja,  who died in the wall collapse at Simhachalam, are inconsolable at the KGH mortuary in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday.
| Photo Credit: K.R. DEEPAK

Tragedy struck the families of seven devotees who lost their lives in the wall collapse at Simhachalam in the early hours of Wednesday.

Soon after the incident, the bodies were shifted to the King George Hospital (KGH) mortuary. The hospital premises echoed with heart-wrenching cries as grieving families mourned the death of their loved ones.

Mild tension prevailed as some of the family members threatened not to allow the conduct of post mortem examination until the government promised to provide government job to the next of kin of the deceased and also take strict action against those responsible for the incident.

Among the seven persons who died, four belonged to a single family from Madhurawada.

P. Uma Maheswara Rao and his wife Sailaja were software employees hailing from Chandrampalem in Madhurawada, while G. Mahalakshmi and P. Venkata Ratnam were their relatives.

“How can a wall collapse? Was it built of paper? Is this not negligence of the engineers? The authorities have hyped a lot about arrangements, but eventually failed to show up in reality. This has resulted in loss of human life. This is atrocious,” said relatives of Uma Maheswara Rao and Sailaja.

“Uma and Sailaja were married three years ago. Both were software employees. They had a good life and great dreams for the future. They wanted to have ‘nijaroopa darshan’ and went to the temple at around 2.30 a.m. We were really shocked upon coming to know about the accident,” the said.

Upon coming to know about the incident, the wife of another deceased Yedla Venkat Rao fell unconscious. The family was unconsolable after seeing the body of their beloved. The family members said they were not able to recognise the faces of their loved ones.

Mayor Peela Srinivasa Rao went to the mortuary and consoled the family members of the deceased. Later, Home Minister V. Anitha, Civil Supplies Minister Nadendla Manohar, MLAs Ganta Srinivasa Rao, Velagpudi Ramakrishna Babu, Panchakarla Ramesh Babu, and Vamsikrishna Srinivas consoled the families and promised that the government would extend all help.