Two villagers engaged in an MGNREGA project died after being trapped as the fencing of the wall of an under-construction well collapsed over them in the Mihijam area of Jharkhand’s Jamtara district on Tuesday morning.

Jamtara deputy commissioner Faiz Ahmed Mumtaz has asked the district’s deputy development commissioner Anilsan Lakra to probe into the incident and submit a report within three days.

“The deputy development commissioner is the nodal officer for MGNREGA-related works and has been directed to probe into all aspects of the mishap and submit a report within three days. We will definitely look into compensation aspects for the deceased villagers’ family after going through the report,” the deputy commissioner said.

The deputy development commissioner confirmed that the incident took place around 9am on Tuesday when several villagers were engaged in digging a 30-foot-deep well under the MGNREGA scheme.

“The machhan (a temporary scaffolding structure built by workers to help in underground as well as multi-storied building civil works) collapsed and so did the bricks and earthen debris on the villagers who were deep inside the under-construction well. The rescue work was carried out immediately but it took several hours for the excavators to dig out the debris and the bodies were recovered in the evening (around 5pm),” said Anilsan Lakra.

The work was being carried out near Kolpada Mosque under Shahardal panchayat in the Mihijam police station area.

The deceased have been identified as Abul Hussain, 24, who was a mason and 25-year-old Dinesh Hembram, a villager of Ladhana panchayat area.