KOCHI: The migrant worker who was first rescued from the heap of mud at the accident site, said he was covered up to the neck in soil in a flash. “I could breathe and hear the sounds around us, I did not know what happened. Even after I gained consciousness, I didn’t have any idea of what happened to me as my whole body was under the soil.
I thought I lost my legs and arms in the accident as they were in a frozen condition. It was only after they pulled me out that I realised I was alive and that too, without any injuries,” Mony Mondal, a native of Matiagachha, a village in West Bengal, said.
He said the accident happened a few minutes after they started work following lunch break. “I was just standing on top of the pit to help my co-workers to level the markings for erecting the column. Suddenly, the soil that had been dumped above the pit slipped on top of us,” said the 40-year-old.
“Since I was looking down, I couldn’t understand what was happening. It took a few minutes for me to realise that the soil fell on us from above and we were all trapped under it,” he said. Mony was later pulled out by his co-workers after removing the soil.
Though he was able to escape, he was completely shattered. “It was just a few seconds ago that we shared jokes. It took only a minute for all of us to get trapped beneath the soil. I am lucky to be alive, but it is a tragedy for me as all who lost their lives died right under my feet,” he said, after making a video call to his family members back home in West Bengal.
‘Construction firm treated us like slaves’
Kabir Mondal, one of the workers at the site, said earthmovers were operating while workers were levelling the trench. “The construction firm has treated us like slaves. They knew the risks of working on loose soil, yet they deployed us sans any safety measure. The soil slipped when a vehicle passed near it,” he alleged.