Delhi police investigation on NBCC
On Thursday the Delhi Police said that it was conducting an investigation regarding the body which was in charge of the construction site at Pilanji village in south Delhi, it is the place where two workers died while cleaning a sewer on Tuesday. Investigators conscious of the matter stated that they will address this to NBCC India and a private construction firm to acquire details of the site, profile of the victims and their employers/ contractors.
While NBCC, which is a public sector undertaking, has denied the fact that it was in charge of the construction site where the death took place, the police stated that they still require documents and evidence to this effect. Police said that they will also investigate whether the victims were hired to clean the sewers or were hired to clean the sewers or they were forced to do cleaning work.
A senior police officer said that it is very unintelligible who was in charge of the site, who was the one behind the functioning of the workers and who told the workers to go inside the sewer line. Both NBCC and a private company are involved. So, the police have asked for documents from the parties. THe police were eager to know what was the chain of command. They found out that the sewer line was in a bad condition. It was old, dried up and stinking. Despite that two workers were sent inside after that another worker headed inside. None of them had any safety gear.
On Tuesday the incident took place in the afternoon when two workers, Shrinath Soren, 28, and Ramasre Lal, 41, were asked to clean garbage inside a sewer line but fell unconscious. Singh and Lal both lost their lives while Soren is undergoing treatment at a hospital and his condition is reported to be critical, this was said by the police.
A second police officer stated that Lal and Soren were not in action to do cleaning work. As per the preliminary probe, the two had worked at the site for two years and were into construction work. They were not experts at cleaning a sewer. However they were forced to do it. The police got to know that Singh was the one who sent the other two to clean the sewer line. He looked after the safety at the site. He later went to help his co- workers but also got trapped and died.
Picture credit: Hindustan Times
On Wednesday the police inspected the site and interacted with the labourers and families of the victims. As mentioned above the senior officer said that based on the allegations, the project manager of the private firms at the site has been called to join the probe.
The sewer line was lying unused for years and was dried up and stinking when the three men asked to go inside, this was alleged by the labourers. They also stated that they had continuously requested the contractor to hire professionals and get safety gear but their demands weren’t fulfilled. When the three men were stuck inside, an earthmover was into action to dig a hole and rescue the men.
Going through the labourer’s allegations, Surendra Chaudhary, deputy commissioner of police stated that they are conducting an inquiry and will inquire all officials involved.
The DCP stated that a first information report was registered against unknown persons under Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita section 106(1) (death by negligence), 125(act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 125 (a) in this case.
Anurag Sexana on this case
Anurag Saxena, general secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions said that there are various violations of the labour law at the site. The men were forced to enter the sewer line despite not having any experience in sewer cleaning. The workers went on a strike as they raised complaints of lack of access to safety gear, clean washrooms, drinking water and clean spaces.
Picture credit: Firstpost
On Wednesday, NBCC had stated the incident had taken place at a labour colony placed across the road from its project site. An NBCC spokesperson said that they wanted to clear out things regarding the fact that the casualties did not happen at NBCC’ s project site. The unexpected incident had taken place at a labour colony which is situated across the road from the NBCCs project site. This location is usually beyond the limits of the work site and is used by the labourers of private contractors.
