M A I N   N E W S

No invitations for kin of dam ‘martyrs’
Prime Minister’s function on March 4
Varinder Walia
Tribune News Service

Ranjit Sagar, March 1
“Dams are symbols of prosperity”, reads a signboard at the entry gate of the multipurpose Thein Dam (Ranjit Sagar Dam).

However, few know that more than 300 workers and engineers have laid down their lives while constructing this magnificent project. Hundreds of workmen became chronic patients of T.B. or were inflicted by skin and respiratory diseases while completing the Rs 3800-crore project.

While the names of 126 ‘martyrs’ of ‘great temple’ of modern India have been enshrined on a memorial raised near the dam, there is no mention of at least 180 workmen who died after the completion of the dam from diseases they were infected with while working on the dam.

Hundreds of patients, including family members of employees, continue to be treated at the dam hospital.

Widows of several workers complained they were treated with ‘contempt’ by the officials whenever they approached them. Many had withdrawn their wards from schools as they could not bear the expenses. They said March 4 when the Prime Minister would dedicate the Ranjit Sagar Dam to the nation was a ‘great day’, but the state government must announce some aid for the families of workers who had died while working on the project.

The General Manager, Mr J.S. Randhawa, and Mr N.S. Chawla, Chief Engineer, claimed that the state government could not give jobs on compassionate grounds to the family members of those who had died due to “natural causes”, that too after the completion of the dam.

However, Mr Natha Singh and Mr Harinder Singh Randhawa, president and general secretary of the Thein Dam Workers Union, respectively, alleged that jobs were being denied on ‘flimsy’ grounds. They claimed that when work on the dam was in progress, family members of each worker, including those who had died due to ‘health reasons’, were given jobs.

However, since 1998, the state government had issued verbal orders not to give any more jobs as over 7,000 workers had been rendered surplus after the completion of the dam.

The Chief Engineer, however, claimed that most workers had died after the completion of the project due to consumption of “excess liquor”.

Among those who have been denied jobs on compassionate grounds are Amarjit Kaur, Matti Tari, Rajwant Kaur, Savitri Devi, Joginder Kaur, Rachhpal Kaur, Harbhajan Kaur, Shakti Devi, Usha Bali, Urmila Devi, Nirmala Kumari and Tripta Devi, all widows of workmen.

They allege the Ranjit Sagar Dam authorities did not even observe the courtesy to extend invitations to the family members of ‘martyrs’ for the Prime Minister’s function scheduled for March 4. The Chief Engineer, when contacted, said more than 100 job applications were pending with the department. The applicants had sought jobs on compassionate grounds.

The union office said no invitation was sent to the families of those who had died in various accidents at the dam site for the Prime Minister’s function. The office had received a telephone call from retired DSP Bakshish Singh from Nangal whose son had died in an accident at the dam site, expressing grief over the “callous attitude” of the authorities.

Union leaders said as many as 13 workers had died on the spot while working on a tower crane on August 30, 1994. Similarly, eight persons had died in a landslide in 1988.