Excelsior Correspondent
LEH, Nov 30: Timely action by the Departments of Labour and Police saved a non-local labourer from dying of cold weather and lack of food.
Taking prompt action on the information given by a good samaritan in Leh through a video that went viral on social media about a mason sleeping in a gorge in chilling winter of Ladakh, Assistant Commissioner Labour Ghulam Nabi Tak along with a team of Ladakh Police jumped into action and saved him in the intervening night of November 29 & 30.
“As soon as we got the information, we along with the Police team started to trace him. He was found in a gorge and was brought to the Labour Office last night and was given food, clothing and a room with heating facility for sleeping and now arrangements are being made for his return to his home. Action will be initiated against the defaulter as per the law”, said ACL Leh Nabi.
In a not-so-usual-story in Ladakh of a contractor not paying his labours, mason Deepak, a resident of Kullu, Himachal Pradesh, was left alone with no money to return back home by his contractor.
The video shows him saying that after working for about six months in Turtuk and Diskit villages in Nubra, the contractor was supposed to give him his due of Rs. 35,000 but was not given a single penny forcing him to live in a gorge with almost no money to return home. He was staying in this difficult situation fighting the bone-chilling winter of Ladakh since 13 days surviving on Maggi noodles with no money to buy other food items.
Secretary Labour UT Ladakh Ravinder Kumar told the press that the Labour Department will provide him the shelter and food in Leh till his safe return to his home town and settling his claim of payments. He also asked the department officials to monitor such cases and take legal action against such defaulters.
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