Labourers seek help from Bihar CM
Wednesday, 18/04/2012
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120418/punjab.htm#4
Hapless labourers, a majority of them from Bihar, who have been hit hard by the building collapse at the Focal Point here today sent an SOS to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and demanded that he should visit them in this hour of need.
Scores of labourers and their families who have been waiting endlessly at the site to see their loved ones alive or dead echoed the same sentiment: "Our CM Nitish Kumar should immediately come and help us in keeping our demands in front of the Punjab Government."
The migrants, who were sitting in groups and attending to phone calls from their respective villages, maintained that they were not even getting a chance to see the faces of the bodies that were being dug out. "We are helpless. The police, administration and the factory owners are non-cooperative, which is aggravating out frustration," a labourer said.
Manjit Kumar, a labourer whose 30-year-old uncle lay trapped in the rubble, said: "If Nitish Kumar visits us, at least our demands will be heard. After all, we have the right to perform last rites of our loved ones. But, we are afraid the matter is being hushed up. Probably, we would not even get to see our family members for the last time."
Joginder Yadav, another migrant whose young nephew Rahul was trapped under the debris, went to the extent of saying that had it been some Punjabis trapped there, the approach of the state government in dealing with the situation would have been different. "Look at the pace of the rescue work. Only the Army is making serious efforts. The nearby residents didn't even visit the site as it were only the Biharis who were trapped inside," he said.
The labourers threatened to launch an agitation if the administration and the police did not co-operate. "In case they continue with their present attitude, we will be left with no option but to file a case against the factory owner," a labourer said.
