TSEWANG RIGZIN
LEH: A casual paid labourer with 54 RCC of Border Roads Organisation, who broke right leg on 24th of August as he slipped into a stone crusher near North Pullu on the Khardongla road, knocked the doors of Commissioner Employees Compensation and Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) Leh on Monday for their intervention to assert for compensation as he claims to be the sole bread earner of the family.
Assistant Labour Commissioner Leh Ghulam Nabi assured that a notice would be issued to 54 RCC regarding the case and Chairman/CEC LAHDC Dr. Sonam Dawa spoke to concerned BRO officials for necessary action with regard to the case.
When asked by CEC, BRO officials claimed that they had already assured employing of his wife in place of compensation. However, the victim of the accident later told STATETIMES that his wife was not employed yet as a CPL.
Mutup Samphel, 47, is registered as a CPL with BRO under Code No: 2312 and MR No: 680/54RCC/ CPL/E2 and was working as a labourer on the Khardongla road when he broke his leg. “My right leg was broken as I slipped into the stone crusher machine on August 24th 2016 while I was on duty near Noth Pullu. I was shifted to SNM hospital in Leh for treatment on the same day, and I was discharged from hospital only on 15th September,”
Samphel, who belongs to a BPL family, appealed to authorities for compensation while adding that he is still undergoing treatment frequently. Samphel told STATETIMES that so far there has not been any enquiry by anyone to compensate the loss and trauma he and his family suffered due to the accident.
Labourers are voiceless section of the society and they often have to go through such traumas and run from the pillar to the post for the rights and dues. A person, whose sole family income comes from his labour as a coolie in inhospitable atmospheric conditions like Khardongla roads, must be compensated well in cases of incidents like this.
Samphel broke his leg while on duty and if he gets discharged from his duty and not compensated well then it may send a wrong signal and set a bad precedent.
CPLs in Ladakh had earlier represented before Director General, Border Roads Organisation requesting for proper insurance facilities for any eventuality that may occur while on work. Labourers in Ladakh work in different inhospitable atmosphere under sub zero temperature, sometimes at high altitudes under as low as -40 Degree Celsius without any proper clothing and facility, and are made to travel in open load carrier tippers.
Hundreds of families across Ladakh have been dependent on BRO as their only source of livelihood for decades since hundreds of Ladakhis have been working as CPLs in different locations to keep road axis and passes open and maintain the highways.
