People's Democracy

         CITU Demands Probe Into Tehri Accident

THE CITU expressed shock and concern over the tragic death of 17 workers who were buried alive due to fall of huge piled up debris while working in Tunnel 3 of the Tehri Hydel project at Uttaranchal on August 3. The death toll may be more as 14 more workers were reportedly missing and 11 others were severely injured. The accident occurred when the construction workers were busy in plastering and reinforcing the vertical tunnel and it was reportedly caused by huge rainfall and consequent water-accumulation pushing the debris down on the workers.

The CITU felt it was the criminal negligence of the contractor, M/s Jaypee Associates, and the principal employer Tehri Hydro Development Corporation resulted in this accident. Therefore, it demanded the government to get the accident thoroughly probed by an impartial agency and punish those responsible for the tragic accident. The CITU also demanded adequate compensation to the families of the victims and employment in the project for the nearest kin of the victims.

Most of the construction workers were poor migrants from other states working on contract basis. The accident could be avoided, had there been least concern among the contractor and the THDC authority for the lives of the poor workers who were undertaking the most hazardous jobs inside the tunnel facing inclement weather and difficult working conditions in the project sites, stated the CITU in its statement on August 4. It said the contractor and the authority had least respect for the statutory safety requirements.  “Allowing debris to pile up at a particular point at the project site in the hilly tract where water gets accumulated in the rainy season is the testimony of such callousness on the part of the contractor and the concerned authorities. Almost similar incident reportedly took  place in the same project around one and half years back leading to loss of lives of the workers but that could not bring the contractor and the authorities to sense to make required preventive arrangement to avoid recurrence of the such debris-fall and tragic loss of lives of the poor workers”, it stated. (INN)