The gap through which the girls fell. A Telegraph picture

Balurghat, May 11: Three girls fell through a gap on the floor and got injured while they were allegedly being forced to work at the construction site of their new school-cum-hostel here today.

Eyewitnesses said a portion of the floor of the unfinished building caved in and Monica Kisku, 10, Tulsi Hembrom, 10, Shyamali Hansda, 11, fell through the gap. The girls have been admitted to the district hospital here.

A source in the district administration said an NGO, Tilottama Chowdhury Memorial Women’s Society, owned the building at Uttamashapally, where they ran a hostel for orphans and girls coming from poor families. Recently, the Society received Rs 8 lakh from the Bengal library and mass education department to build a study centre for the girls, the source added.

The society pulled down the bamboo-walled, tin-roofed structure to construct a concrete building. But the concrete floor was allowed to remain. Residents of the area said construction workers had dug around the perimeter of the floor to raise pillars to support brick and concrete walls. The soil beneath the floor was probably washed away by rain, creating a cavity.

The residents alleged that the three girls were sent to the construction site this morning to work when the accident took place.

“The children are hardly given anything to eat and they are made to work,” said Ashalata Sarkar, an elderly resident of the area. “I have seen the girls carry building material on their heads.”

The Society’s secretary, Bulu Das, said the charges were “not true”. District magistrate Swapan Kumar Chatterjee said the subdivisional officer has been asked to submit a report on the incident.