CONTAI/PURULIA: At least five hydropower project workers from West Bengal’s East Midnapore and Purulia districts are among the 200-odd people still missing in Uttarakhand following Sunday’s glacial burst.
Sudip Guria (27) and brothers Lalu (30) and Bulu Jana (29), all residents of Mahishadal in East Midnapore, were working at the Rishiganga power project site on Sunday when the flood washed away the dam. Till Monday night, their families in Bengal had no information about them.
Sudip’s brother Baidyanath told TOI he and some other youths from their village were working at the project site for two years. “My brother didn’t come home during the lockdown. He was scheduled to come here in four days. Since the news, we have been desperately trying to contact him, but calls are not going through.”
Baidyanath said Sudip last spoke to his parents on Saturday when he told them about his plans of returning home this week. “On Sunday evening, we managed to contact one of his colleagues. The colleague said since the flooding, they had looked everywhere but the three (Sudip, Lalu and Bulu) had not been traced,” Baidyanath said.
Also missing are Purulia’s Ashwini Tantbay (30) and Subhankar Tantbay of Baganbari village. “Neither we nor the contractor (who got them the job) could track them down,” said a family member. Anxious family members of missing workers have approached block development offices, pleading for rescue, officials said.