TEAM HERALD
CANACONA: A group of workers from Jharkhand were lucky to have survived the Canacona building tragedy, but their ordeal is far from over.
Not only have they been given the traumatic task of identifying the bodies of their co-workers, many of them are also upset that they have not been paid their wages since the past three weeks.
Speaking to Herald, a worker said three bodies of their co-workers that were recovered from the debris at the building collapsed of Ruby Residency at Chaudi-Canacona, had reached Ranchi in Jharkhand.
“Three bodies of our colleagues reached Ranchi by flight on Thursday. The bodies were later sent to their respective villages covering a journey of over 12 hours by road. The bodies of Puran Singh and Sajan Singh were shifted to Godda district, the body of Munna Goswami was taken to Sahibganj district,” informed a worker from Jharkhand, who has been kept on standby at the Ruby Residency to identify the bodies whenever found.
According to the workers, about seven persons are still missing from a group of 46 labourers from Jharkhand alone, while four workers are missing from UP. Besides, some workers from Bihar, Sirsi-Karnataka and other locations were also reportedly engaged at the construction site.
The labourers at the site said a government official from Jharkhand had visited them and assured that the Goa government was doing everything possible to retrieve the bodies of their colleagues from the debris, while the Jharkhand government would make arrangements to transport the bodies to their respective villages.
A worker, Soman Bhaski, informed that while authorities provided them with food, they were yet to receive their payments since the past three weeks. “Only Rs 500 was paid to each one of us in each of those weeks,” Suman said.
Added another worker, “Our supervisor had told us that payments for all three weeks would be made on Saturday (January 4), but the tragedy that day left us without payment for the fourth week.”
According to the worker, all of them had been working at Ruby Residency since the last two years and their payments were made on the basis of type of works and it ranged between Rs 275 and Rs 500 per day.
According to the workers, a number of labour parties were engaged at different locations on the building and many families with their children were putting up under the now collapsed building.
“But just a week ago, they were asked to move and stay outside the complex compound,” informed a worker, suggesting that the casualties would have been much had the families remained in the collapsed building.
Meanwhile, a group of young workers from UP, Bihar and Jharkhand were seen squatting across the main entrance gate of Ruby Residency waiting for their turn to identify the bodies. According to one of them, there are over 30 bodies still under the debris.
