Lucknow, September 12
Thousands of penniless construction workers have been stranded on the streets awaiting their dues as the state machinery suddenly swung into action and halted work at various memorials and park sites yesterday.

Sitting huddled under a tree across the Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Sthal in Gomti Nagar, a group of stonecutters from Bharatpur in Rajasthan are calculating their dues from notes scribbled on a dog-eared pocket-sized notebook. One is sitting on a steel trunk; others have all their worldly belongings packed in airbags.

The head of this group of 22 stonecutters, mostly from Rajasthan, is Puran Thekedar. He holds a detailed muster roll in which he has marked “man days” completed by his group.

He complains that a payment of around Rs 2.5 lakh was due from builder Abhishek Pandey, who is from Kanpur. “Since yesterday, he has switched off his phone and I don’t know how to get in touch with him,” he added.

Among the group is Phool Singh. His weather beaten face is lined with worries. “They turned us out in such a hurry that we could not even collect our tool boxes. I have visited the site several times since yesterday requesting the watchman to open the gate so that I could collect my tools, but to no avail,” he said.

Each member of this group had been working at this site for the past six months for Rs 300 per day. “We were paid only kharcha-pani of Rs 50 to 100 per day and the rest was to be given to us when we completed our work,” they said. Almost every worker in that group has between Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 due to him.

Unable to sustain themselves on the pavement, the group is planning to travel back home by the late night Marudhar Express. “If we stay here for another day, we would not be left with money to return home,” said Hukum Singh.

Similar is the case with thousands of workers who worked at this memorial site. They do not know how to get their dues before they leave.

A deceptive fair like atmosphere is visible in the lane behind the Ambedkar Memorial where a makeshift tented colony of construction workers had come up. With no work to keep them occupied, some were sitting watching cricket match at a tea stall while others were playing cards.

Ram Babu, also from Karuali in Rajasthan, said, “Some lucky ones managed a lift in a truck going to Rajasthan. Many of us are planning to board trains without ticket so that we can at least reach our homes. None of us has the resources to take up our case with the contractors or builders. We will write off our dues like a bad debt.” It being a second Saturday, no official from the Lucknow Development Authority or the Rajkiya Nirman Nigam was available for comments.