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Ghaziabad: Victims worked for ₹500/day, slept in a shelter
It was the first time that they were told to work at night, families of the five deceased and two injured daily wage earners recalled omniously, adding that they
It was the first time that they were told to work at night, families of the five deceased and two injured daily wage earners recalled omniously, adding that they slept in a shelter at night to send ₹500 home.
“I got a call about from my brother who was in SUV of the sub contractor (Naseem Ahmad). My son Parvesh had come to the site for work. He earned ₹500 per day. My uncle’s son Durgesh was also there. They were both killed. Pravesh was unmarried but Durgesh has two children back home. All the five who died are very poor and sustained their families by working as construction site workers,” Pravesh’s father Sunil Kumar said.
Survivors said they were laying a pipe for the corporation’s street light project and were returning to Rajendra Nagar after finishing work at 2am when the accident took place.
“It was the first time we had gone out to work at night and our friends met with the accident. I was sitting near the tractor driver. Suddenly, I heard a loud sound and I fell to the ground. I could not see what had happened and if there was any vehicle which hit our trolley. I fell to the ground and became unconscious. When I regained consciousness I found myself in the hospital,” said Johnny, 26, one of the two who escaped with a fractured leg.
As families of the men killed in the accident arrived to claim the bodies, sub contractor Naseem Ahmad, whose son Shahrukh was allegedly driving the trolley, said he was forced to bring the workers to the site to expedite work on the street light project as directed by the contractor.
“The person who has the contract from the corporation is from Aligarh. I was told to arrange for workers. The work has been going on for quite some time, but only during the day. After the corporation officials asked the contractor to work at night, I was told to bring labourers. It was cold, so, at 2am, I called off work. It was the first time that my workers had come at night and they were killed,” he added.
Municipal commissioner Dinesh Chandra denied that he or any civic officer gave direction for the labourers to work at night.
However, the police, late Monday night, claimed Ahmad had threatened workers and forced them to work at night.
