The 17th floor of the Idco building that caved in. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, March 5: A labourer died as a portion of a government highrise building caved in at Mancheswar industrial estate this afternoon.

The labourer has been identified as Rahul Sheikh, 19, from Farakka in Bengal.

He died on the spot after falling from the 17th floor of an under-construction building of the Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco). The accident happened while Sheikh was working on a false structure that was being readied for laying roof.

“He fell on the ground after the iron frame caved in and died on the spot,” said an eyewitness. The incident has brought into sharp focus the safety aspect of poor labourers working in highrise buildings risking their life. Though police claimed that Sheikh was working with a safety belt, several eyewitnesses said that he had not put on his safety belt.

A reality check by The Telegraph also revealed that a number of workers were being engaged at the site without appropriate safety gears.

District labour officer of Khurda Ambika Mishra said that they had received the information about the accident.

“The contractor, who has been appointed by the government agency, was working with valid licence. We will conduct an inquiry tomorrow to find out if there was any lapse in the security of the workers,” said Mishra.

There have been several instances of labourer injuries and deaths for not adhering to proper safety standards while working at construction sites.

On January 8, two construction workers died after a portion of the roof of the Kalpna Talkies, one among the oldest cinema halls of the city, caved in. The incident had taken place while the cinema hall was being demolished to pave way for a shopping mall and multiplex on the land. In that accident, too, the labourers were working in unsafe conditions.

Not only in the case of highrise buildings, labourer safety measures are not being followed during construction of roads and flyover bridges as well. The Orissa Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act empowers the authorities to initiate actions against any employer found not sticking to safety guidelines.

Trade union activists blamed poor enforcement of laws related to safety of labourers for the blatant violations. “The minimum safety measures for labourers are being flouted at many construction sites. The authorities must ensure safety of labourers at construction sites,” said Manas Pradhan, a labourer rights activist.