Safety equipment yet to reach Corporation contract workers

MADURAI

MADURAI

After raising eyebrows and posting comments on social media on the horrifying incident of the death of three contract workers by asphyxiation at Nehru Nagar here on April 22, most people returned to their normal lives, but S Karthikeyan (30) could not.

The only survivor of the gruesome incident said he was hospitalised for two days and took a week off from work trying to overcome the grief of losing three of his co-workers together on a single night while giving time to stabilise his health was accused of absconding after the incident by his employer, VRG construction company worker.

“Having worked for five years in this unthankful job, I had no supervisor from the company visit me at the hospital or home. All I bore was part of my already meagre salary cut, counting my absence as leave,” he added.

Their death could have been prevented, had they been provided with safety equipment like belts, ropes, oxygen tanks, gloves and masks, said Mr Karthikeyan.

“Though the company received safety equipment gears on the strict instructions from the Corporation, they denied distributing it to the workers citing that it’ll get stolen,” he said.

For most workers, there are no weekly offs though they are overworked, as most Corporation zones are under-staffed for reasons only known to the officials concerned.