‘He was never trained for this work’: Families of 3 linemen who died in sewer grapple with loss

One of the deceased, Pintu Rao (30), was a daily wager from Jharkhand. He lived in Delhi’s Hari Nagar in a one-room shared accommodation with several male members of his extended family.

He is survived by his wife Sulekha and two children aged 12 and 9. “His family cannot travel 1,300 km for his body, so we will take care of the formalities,” said Lilandhar Kumar, his nephew. The family said he had been working as a lineman for the last 5-6 years, earning Rs 800 a day.

“We came to know about the death early in the morning. I don’t know what to do. We are uneducated people – we don’t know much about safety equipment. He was never trained for the work. How was he supposed to know about the safety or dangers of what he was doing?” said Kumar.

Pintu’s friend Bacchu Singh (54), who also died Tuesday, had been working as a lineman for 10-12 years. His family said he was a recluse who didn’t have many friends. His nephew Dharamveer said, “Uncle never got married and has no children. He lived with us. He made very less and around 3-4 years ago, he was injured doing similar work.”

Both Pintu and Bacchu worked for a private contractor, Suraj Kumar Sahni, who also died inside the sewer. His family said Suraj had been in the contracting business for a long time and was often assisted by his son Piyush.

“He has been a professional all these years. There have been no accidents earlier. This has come as a shock for all of us because work was supposed to finish on the same day and he would have been home. We are yet to come to terms with this,” said his relative Nancy. Suraj is survived by his wife and two children.