Nearly a month after the Delhi High Court rapped the Public Works Department (PWD) and the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) over the unhygienic living conditions of labourers staying over a drain in south Delhi’s Greater Kailash-I, no steps have been taken to move the workers to a proper accommodation.
Over 100 labourers and their families have been living over the nullah in A-Block for nearly a year now.
They were brought here to construct a rain-water drain, which is being built in B-Block of GK-I.
The contractor, engaged by the SDMC to build the rain-water drain, hired the labourers — some came to Delhi from as far as Madhya Pradesh — and had told them to stay over the PWD drain.
The contractor and the municipal corporation have even erected toilets over the drain for the workers, but the PWD said it has no clue about it.
‘We were told to stay here’
Over the nullah, the labourers have collected large amounts of scrap, and have made huge mounds of old furniture and timber, which is used in cooking.
The area is littered with plastic jerry cans, which are used to carry water. There are also cycle-rickshaws parked everywhere.
“We have been living here for the last one year now. The contractor who hired us gave us space here. That is how we live whenever we come to Delhi for work on any government project,” said Kalawati, a labourer from Madhya Pradesh. She is living over the drain with her daughter-in-law and children.
Another worker, Kailash said: “The SDMC asked us to stay here and gave us tents and logs to make a temporary hut. It also made toilets and bathrooms for us”.
The High Court had rapped the civic agencies for “treating its workers worse than animals”.
Pursuant to the court’s criticism, the SDMC had cleaned the muck deposited on the nullah and cleared the dhaloa.
Residents cry foul
But the residents of GK-I A-Block — mostly senior citizens — rue how the agencies have “put them through hell”.
“Earlier, the stench and mosquitoes breeding over the nullah bothered us, but now we have to bear the noises of the labourers fighting or cutting wood or cleaning utensils at odd hours. We have called in the police so many times and approached the civic bodies, but all in vain,” said Nira Davar, a senior citizen whose house is adjacent to the drain.
It was on Ms. Davar’s plea that the HC had told the PWD and the SDMC to “ensure that the workers have a decent accommodation. It is pitiable”.
But that has not happened.
An SDMC engineer associated with the work on the drain said that the situation of the workers was normal and that they took permission from other government agencies for the labourers to stay over the drain.
When contacted, an officials of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation said: “There is no rule that workers have to stay close to the site where the construction is taking place.”
