‘No safety gear was ever given to them’
Two of the three men who died inside a poisonous sewer in Lajpat Nagar on Sunday were eagerly waiting for Rakshabandhan to celebrate the day with their sisters.
While one of their sisters would have tied a rakhi on her brother’s arms from a hospital bed, the other had travelled all the way from Bihar to Delhi.
The first was Joginder, 32 — the third man to enter the illfated manhole on Sunday afternoon. The unmarried man’s sister is in a Ghaziabad hospital for a heart surgery.
“Joginder and I had been looking forward to Rakhi and we planned to meet our sister in hospital,” said his brother, Ajay, who spent the day at the AIIMS mortuary for his brother’s body.
“I waited for hours before I broke the news to our sister,” said Ajay.
The other worker was 21-yearold Mohan who remained unidentified for hours.
“Our sister travelled to Delhi from Bihar so that she could celebrate Rakshabandhan with us,” said Mohan’s brother, Bablu.
The third victim, 25-year-old Annu, left behind his wife and a three-year-old son.
The relatives of the victims said the contractors never provided them anything more than a bucket, a spade and a rope.
“No safety equipment is ever provided. Even the rope is not meant for our safety. It is used to pull up buckets filled with muck,” alleged Ajay, who claimed he worked for a contractor employed by Delhi Jal Board.
“We know about the poisonous gases but we go inside as we need money,” said Ajay who said his dead brother earned anywhere between ₹5,000 and ₹7,000 per month for the job.