Nearly a month after the Delhi High Court rapped the Public Works
Department (PWD) and the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) over
the unhygienic living conditions of labourers staying over a drain in
south Delhi’s Greater Kailash-I, no steps have been taken to move the
workers to a proper accommodation.

Over 100 labourers and their families have been living over thenullahin A-Block for nearly a year now.

They were brought here to construct a rain-water drain, which is being built in B-Block of GK-I.

The
contractor, engaged by the SDMC to build the rain-water drain, hired
the labourers — some came to Delhi from as far as Madhya Pradesh — and
had told them to stay over the PWD drain.

The contractor and the
municipal corporation have even erected toilets over the drain for the
workers, but the PWD said it has no clue about it.

‘We were told to stay here’

Over
the nullah, the labourers have collected large amounts of scrap, and
have made huge mounds of old furniture and timber, which is used in
cooking.

The area is littered with plastic jerry cans, which are used to carry water. There are also cycle-rickshaws parked everywhere.

“We
have been living here for the last one year now. The contractor who
hired us gave us space here. That is how we live whenever we come to
Delhi for work on any government project,” said Kalawati, a labourer
from Madhya Pradesh. She is living over the drain with her
daughter-in-law and children.

Another worker, Kailash said: “The
SDMC asked us to stay here and gave us tents and logs to make a
temporary hut. It also made toilets and bathrooms for us”.

The High Court had rapped the civic agencies for “treating its workers worse than animals”.

Pursuant to the court’s criticism, the SDMC had cleaned the muck deposited on the nullah and cleared the dhaloa.

Residents cry foul

But the residents of GK-I A-Block — mostly senior citizens — rue how the agencies have “put them through hell”.

“Earlier,
the stench and mosquitoes breeding over the nullah bothered us, but now
we have to bear the noises of the labourers fighting or cutting wood or
cleaning utensils at odd hours. We have called in the police so many
times and approached the civic bodies, but all in vain,” said Nira
Davar, a senior citizen whose house is adjacent to the drain.

It
was on Ms. Davar’s plea that the HC had told the PWD and the SDMC to
“ensure that the workers have a decent accommodation. It is pitiable”.

But that has not happened.

An
SDMC engineer associated with the work on the drain said that the
situation of the workers was normal and that they took permission from
other government agencies for the labourers to stay over the drain.

When
contacted, an officials of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation said:
“There is no rule that workers have to stay close to the site where the
construction is taking place.”