GANGTOK, 21 Sept: With many missing and several dead, large sections of the remaining labour force of the hydel project companies up in North Sikkim are fleeing home. Ever since the day of the earthquake, the labourers, mostly from West Bengal, Bihar and Nepal, have been trickling into Mangan on foot from Chungthang and other places. They are, to a large extent, the forgotten lot; neither the administration nor their respective companies seem to have organized anything to return them home.
It is ironic that in a situation as the one that they find themselves in, they have not been paid for the past 4 to 5 months and have not a penny in their pockets. They also find that there is on arrangement made by the administration or anybody else for their journey back home.
With no money, most were seen just sitting at the Mangan taxi stand, hoping for a lift out. It was only the Mangan Nagar Panchayat and the bazaar community which organized hot meals and tea for them which saved them from starving.
In fact, so shaken are they that most informed, while talking to NOW, that they have no intention of returning. It was also informed that almost all the labour force were going home meaning that the project related companies will have to embark on a new recruitment drive thus pushing back their schedule by months.
Tinku from Patna, walking in a group of eight labourers, all from Patna, said that he and his friends were working on a building construction site for a company engaged by Teesta Urja and were miraculously saved when the tremor struck.
“We have not been paid for the last 3 months but we don’t care, we only want to return home with our lives,” said Tinku.
Krishna Rai from Nepal, along with 3 others from Nepal, was employed at a tunnel site in Chungthang. They too have not been paid for the past 4 months and have no money on them. Taking in the hot meal organized by the Bazaar community, they informed that they have no idea where their contractor is from so that they could ask for their dues. They have not even sighted any project officials.
Jeeploads of labourers could be seen heading down towards Singtam and onwards to Siliguri. A whole jeep of around 20 boys informed that they had been working at the Adit V tunnel of Teesta Urja at the time of the earthquake. They remain silent on the probability of other labourers who may be stranded or trapped in the tunnels however the labourers from Nepal suggested that more bodies could be recovered from the Saffo tunnels and that there were not enough hands to clear the tunnels.
Many were on the roadside during the time of the earthquake and may have been washed away in the ensuing slides, they suggest. Today itself, unconfirmed reports from official sources hinted at eight bodies being recovered from the Adit 5 of which only 5 bodies could be taken out.
With most of the labour force heading home and without having been paid their dues, it could be a difficult task for the companies to get others to come in their place especially with the history of an earthquake now in the records as well.
District officials maintained that the project authorities were organizing the evacuation of those who wanted to leave but the testimony of many who trekked it down to Mangan tells a different story.
Excellent reporting. But why is there no byline on this story?
ReplyDeleteThe poor labourers, need to be tracked and paid for their labour and sweat.
ReplyDelete