Kolkata warehouse collapse: Kin identify victims, survivor recounts why he took the job

Recently, Rahul had received his first month’s salary. He was paid Rs 9,000 for a month’s work, his sister Sima Prasad said.

She added, “Initially, when I started looking for him, everyone said, ‘he is 16 or 17, he wasn’t there.’ Poor people need money, but it is the government’s job to create work and ensure no one hires minors as cheap labour.”

She alleged her brother told her there were no proper water arrangements on the site. “Only when the engineers visited, they  arranged for water,” she said, “Why did no one check if the developers were following safety rules and SOPs?” Sima identified Rahul’s body from the clothes he had worn that morning.

Ganesh Kalindi (45), construction  worker

Ganesh Kalindi had spent seven to eight years moving between construction sites in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Bengaluru. The Taratala project was his first assignment in Kolkata.

The worker from Dhanbad had come as part of an eight-member team for a 12-day contract. Four workers had  returned home, while the remaining four, including Kalindi, were scheduled to board a train from Howrah Wednesday afternoon.

“My uncle stepped away just two minutes before the collapse to pack his bag,” recalled his nephew Premnath Badrekar, who was working alongside him. Kalindi was rescued after nearly five hours and was alive when relatives met him in hospital. He died the next afternoon.

Pappu Kumar Rajak (40), mason

Wednesday was supposed to be Rajak’s final day at the site.

A resident of Jagaddal, Rajak  worked in jute mills and later in a factory before both shut. For the past decade, he had worked as a mason on construction projects across Kolkata to support his wife Siuli and their 13-year-old daughter Pushpa. He was the strongest member of the family, his brother Ashok said.

“As she (Pushpa) grew, we required a regular job. Almost all the jute mills and factories in our area had shut,” said Siuli. The family spent nearly five hours shuttling between the accident site and SSKM Hospital searching for him. “They showed me four other bodies before I found my husband,” Siuli said.

Krishna Choudhury (49), former jute mill worker

Krishna Choudhury, a former worker at the Reliance Jagaddal Jute Mill, had turned to construction work after the mill shut last November.

For the past seven months, he had been travelling to construction sites to support his wife Suchita, three children and his 80-year-old mother Jasoda Devi Choudhury, who lies bedridden, clutching a photo of her son. “I just want my son back,” Jasoda wept. “He was forced to take up hazardous work at such distant places just to feed us.” “He earned 600 a day,” Suchita said. “I have three children to raise.”

Swapan Mondol (55), construction worker

Swapan Mondol of Shyamnagar, also left his regular work after being promised higher wages at the Taratala site. He is survived by his wife and two married daughters. “My father never used to work far from home. He agreed because of  better pay,” his elder daughter said. She said local construction work usually paid him Rs 500-600 a day. “A supervisor told him he would get Rs 1,000 a day for six days here. We identified him from the copper bracelet.”

Suman Karmakar (40), construction worker

Karmakar of Shyamnagar, the only earning member of his family, was identified through a childhood injury that had left his thumb severed and the shirt he was wearing during the video call that day. He leaves behind his wife, a one-and-a-half-year-old son, differently-abled  father, and an unemployed younger brother, Sujon Karmakar. “Now there are no earning members in the family. What will happen to the children?” his brother said.

“… workers at Taratala were getting paid well, earning Rs 300 to Rs 400 more per day along with food so he said he will go,” his brother said.

Sreechand Kumar (17), Manu Kumar (19), Ghee Kumar (19), construction workers

Sreechand Kumar was identified from his phone. His cou­sins, Manu and Ghee also died. Sahid Kumar, one of the cousins who survived, waited outside the morgue for bodies of his relatives. “We came here on June 12 and stayed at the site itself,” Sahid told The Indian Express. “We are from Munger… We thought we would earn more here and then move on to another site. We are now returning to Munger,” he said.

Debashish Das (43), survivor

Like others, Das from Shy­am­­nagar too had accepted the Taratala job after being promised Rs 1,000 a day. Before leaving Kolkata, Das said, “We were working on the ground-floor concrete casting when the entire structure collapsed. I’ll never go for this kind of work again.”