The Hindu : New Delhi News : Details of working conditions at C’wealth Games site sought

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Friday, Mar 07, 2008
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Details of working conditions at C’wealth Games site sought

Staff Reporter

Activists claim that workers are made to live under unhygienic conditions

NEW DELHI: Activists fighting to save the Yamuna flood plains here in the Capital have decided to file an appeal with the Central Information Commission seeking information about the working conditions of labourers engaged in the construction work at the site of the Commonwealth Games Village.

Diwan Singh of Natural Heritage First and an activist of the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan had filed an application under the Right to Information Act asking the Delhi Development Authority to reply within 48 hours on the number of labourers who have lost their lives after getting infected by the meningitis bacteria at the site of construction.

“We had sought information under the life and liberty clause as given in proviso to Section 7(1) of the Act on Tuesday. The time limit of 48 hours expired at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, so we have decided to file an appeal with the CIC,” said Mr. Singh.

The application was filed after several labourers complained that some of their colleagues had lost their lives after being infected by the meningitis bacteria.

“The labourers were scared because some of their colleagues came down with high fever and headache and of those, a few unfortunate ones lost their lives. The Government and the contractors have not come out with the details of how many labourers have lost their lives,” said Mr. Singh.

“We have been told that the bodies of those who lost their lives are untraceable and the whereabouts of those who were ill are also not known. Since a majority of the labourers are from Bihar and West Bengal, there are no relatives here to raise an outcry. Some of the workers who live in jhuggi-jhopri clusters in Delhi have already left their work. But those who come from far-off places cannot even leave work, because the contractors hold back their payments,” he added.

Alleging that the working and living conditions at the site are appalling, Mr. Singh said: “The workers are made to live in unhygienic conditions, they sleep in cluttered areas and there is no cleanliness at the site of work. This makes the workers an easy prey for infections.”

Mr. Singh also claimed that the members of the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan had learnt about the deaths of two persons this past Sunday and six on February 29. “We suspect that there are serious health hazards at the site and also an insidious effort to hide these deaths.”

He said Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan is now seeking the CIC’s help in getting all the necessary details of those employed at the Games Village site since the construction began.

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