Pune Police had arrested four people linked to the project. File An independent team of investigators has flagged the non-compliance of eight labour laws and other laws over the slab collapse incident in an under-construction site in Yerwada on February 3. The accident had led to the death of five labourers while five others were injured. All the victims were migrant labourers from Bihar.
The team, which includes senior lawyers Gayatri Singh, Mohan Waradkar, public health expert Dr Shaila Ansari, labour expert Chandan Kumar, and trade unionists Kashinath Nakathe and Bilal Khan, among others, has pulled up the Labour department and the Pune Municipal Corporation for “turning a blind eye” towards lack of safety precautions.
Pune Police had arrested four people, including the site engineer, site supervisor, the site manager and the security engineer associated with the project.
Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta had said these people were arrested due to their alleged role in the negligence at the site, which had led to the mishap and deaths.
The fact-finding team had visited the site, the injured victims as well as the office of the additional labour commissioner as part of its probe. The interim report has flagged a series of instances of negligence which, according to the team, led to the mishap.
According to the report, the migrant labourers had neither been registered under the Interstate Migrant Workers Act, 1979, nor the Maharashtra Building and other construction workers Act, 1996. Registration under both laws is the responsibility of the additional labour commissioner. The report said the death of the labourers could have been avoided if the labour commissioner’s office had carried out due diligence of the site.
“Before the incident, no safety inspection was carried out at the construction site by the industries, energy and Labour departments and no visits to the site were undertaken due to a policy of the government which requires that all complaints regarding unsafe construction practices must be made online first, only then the officers of the Labour department can be deployed for an inspection under the ‘Central Inspection System’. This policy/circular needs to be done away with and regular monitoring of safety requirements need to be carried out under the supervision of the Labour department,” stated the report.
The PMC had also formed a committee to investigate the incident but it did not have any representatives from labour unions or labourers.
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