Porvorim: Labourers and workers at the new Mandovi bridge construction site blamed their bosses for the death of the Kolkata-based welder who was burnt to death, while officials of the construction agency Larsen &Tubro said it was an error on the part of the workmen.
When Herald visited the site on Tuesday evening, labourers said there was need of a compressor in the tunnel when workmen are below a certain level of the ground and this was not made available in spite of repeated requests. Labourers also said that for the entire project there is just one such compressor available which is rotated at all the place where underground work is on.
“It is not a mistake of the worker, it is a mistake of our bosses (hamari galti kuch nahi, yeh to sab sahab logo ki galti hai),” a labourer told Herald on Tuesday.
However, L&T Admin In Charge in Goa, Javed told Herald that it was not a mistake of the company and if there was compressor the incident could have been worse as there were two workers in the tunnel and both could have lost their lives.
He refrained from speaking further and answering other queries suggesting that the talk continue in his cabin with a technical expert on Wednesday.
Labour Minister Avertano Furtado, speaking to Herald, said that an inquiry has been ordered through the Labour Commissioner. He said he will ask the Commissioner for a thorough investigation in the incident.
However, Inspectorate of Factories and Boilers Chief Inspector Vivek Marathe said that if a compressor would have worsened the accident then at least a Self Contained Breathing Aspirator (SCBA) should have been in place for the workers going below the ground level.
He said the accident and safety measures do not come under his jurisdiction but slammed the Labour Department for not effectively implementing the Building and Other Construction Work Act which had come in force in 1996.
“The same Act has not been implemented aggressively, not been given prime status and not provided with infrastructure,” Marathe said. The act has been implemented by the Labour Commissioner but there are no technical people in the department, he added.
On Monday evening Sharula Shaikh who was working as a welder on the site suffered 90 percent burn injuries when working eight meters below the ground in a vertical tunnel of the under construction bridge pillar. Shaikh is survived by his elderly mother, wife and two children in Kolkata.
