The Bandhkaam Kamgar Sena, a city-based outfit working with labourers at construction sites, has written to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday demanding recruitment of more ‘sensitive’ labour officers to preclude tragedies like the Kondhwa wall collapse that resulted in the death of 15 workers and their kin, including women and children.
The letter, also addressed to the Labour Minister, has strongly condemned the apathy and corruption in the labour office in Pune.
“We urge the State government to ensure that after this tragedy, the Labour Welfare Board wakes up and register construction labourers so that they can avail of the benefits of the 28 welfare schemes announced by the State government… We hope in the near future that the labourer, who has done so much to change the face of Pune district, can at least dream of travelling by an airplane instead of his corpse being transported for last rites by the same conveyance,” reads the letter by Jayant Shinde, founder, Bandhkaam Kamgar Sena.
In the letter, Mr. Shinde pointed out that in June 2013, a committee had been formed under the Deputy Labour Commissioner comprising a police officer, a labour officer and two staff inspectors.
This panel was tasked with inspecting construction sites especially during the monsoon season so as to prevent tragedies like this.
‘No action taken’
“But after a month, no action was taken by this committee which has long faded into oblivion. So, we have every reason to fear that despite the bureaucratic buzz following the Kondhwa tragedy, nothing will ultimately change and that any fresh policy directives drafted would only be confined to paper,” he said, speaking to The Hindu .
Accusing the Labour Welfare Board of being in cahoots with builders, Mr. Shinde alleged that the office, ostensibly set up for the welfare of labourers, had no proper records of the number of labourer deaths or casualties at construction sites.
Mr. Shinde said that in February this year he had written to the Labour Commissioner in Pune detailing instances of rampant corruption in the labour office.
“We discovered instances of labour officials stamping blank registration forms and siphoning off government money intended for labourers. But no action was forthcoming on our letter. Again, when we sought information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act in March this year regarding labour fatalities in the past year, we were informed of deaths of only 40 labourers which is in stark contrast to our information of 80 deaths at construction sites and elsewhere,” Mr. Shinde said.
He said that of these 40 ‘officially recorded’ fatalities, the labour office could furnish details of only half the casualties.
As per rules, the builder or contractor has to pay the labour office ₹85 per worker as one-time registration fees which holds good for five years.“Very often, it is found that labour agents demand high sums for registration and end up not registering him at all. Aware of the corrupt practices of the authorities, the builder does not care about registering his workforce as he is aware that they will migrate soon after their work with him is done. This way, the labourer ends up an ‘orphan’, with no financial protection at all in the event of a mishap,” Mr. Shinde said.
‘Suspend ward engineer’
Meanwhile, the Sambhaji Brigade has held authorities of the Pune Municipal Corporation responsible for the Kondhwa wall collapse.
It accused PMC officials of corruption and demanded that a case of culpable homicide be lodged against city engineer Prashant Waghmare and the civic body authorities in Kondhwa.
“We demand that Mr. Waghmare and the ward engineer and other civic authorities be held responsible for the Kondhwa incident and be immediately suspended. The PMC always gets into its ‘cover-up’ mode whenever such accidents occur and is prompt to pass the blame onto the builder,” said Santosh Shinde, Pune district president of the Brigade.
He said nearly 60% of all new constructions coming up in Pune district were ‘illegal’, and alleged that corrupt civic body officials gave permission to builders without even visiting the site.
An experts’ committee comprising Pune civic body officials and a team from the College of Engineering Pune (CoEP) have conducted a preliminary investigation of the mishap site. The committee has indicated that there were significant flaws in the construction of the retaining wall which crashed on to the labourers’ hutments in the wee hours of Saturday.
