‘Dupattas, bed sheets were used to save victim, but in vain’

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 19

Street No. 8 of Kabir Nagar is silent. People living in the area are there but they all are talking to each other in murmurs. Some are sitting outside their homes and constantly gazing towards the site where the labourer died while laying a sewer line. It was petrifying for them as they had seen death in front of them.

As this correspondent walked in for a few meters, a woman in her 70s, Shashi Sharma, was seen telling every newcomer regarding Mohamad Sayed, the 28-year-old migrant labourer who lost his life while laying the sewer line.

“We used dupattas, our bed sheets and everything else we could use to save the young man. But we could not succeed,” recalled Shashi, in front of whose home the worker died.

She said after she saw his body, she was shocked.

“To see a young man die at this age was unbearable. He also has a family and his children must be waiting for him to return to them, all that came to my mind and I am still unable to get those images out of my mind,” she said.

She was explaining everything to officials who were visiting the spot to inquire about the matter.

Another young man joined her and said the people here brought their torches to help others who were trying to take him out of the place where he was buried alive.

Such is the horror among the residents here that they have made sure that none of the children go near the spot where the incident took place.

Some were also heard saying: “Is mausam vich kaun kamm karvanda hai? Eh sari prashasan di laparvahi hai” (who do get works done in such a weather, it is all due to the careless attitude of the administration).