The Rajgangpur police in Sundargarh district on Tuesday registered a case against the contractor of the under-construction bridge over luhakhani river on a complaint holding him responsible for death of 16-year-old Sulochana Tappo of lamloi village after being buried under a mound of earth at the worksite.
Family members received the body only after the contractor agreed to pay ` 3 lakh as compensation.
Sulochana was working as a worker at the construction site when she was buried under clay at a deep of 30 feet at around 4.30 pm on Sunday. She had gone to drink water when the mishap occurred. However, the body was recovered after 24 hours of the incident.
Irate over the incident, locals staged a demonstration keeping the body at the worksite and demanded a compensation of `25 lakh for the deceased’s family. After several rounds of talks, the contractor agreed to pay `3 lakh as compensation to the family in the presence of police and administrative officials.
Sources said the bridge construction work was awarded by the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), Sundargarh to the Shanti Construction owned by Bipin Agarwal of Sambalpur.
“On the complaint of the deceased’s family members, a case has been registered against the contractor. Further investigations are on,” said Rajgangpur IIC PK Jena
Meanwhile, Rajnagar Tehsildar Subhra Bala Behera said the matter would be referred to District labor Commissioner (DlC) soon.
“Since the allegation of engaging a minor in a bridge construction work has come to fore, we would be refer the case to the DlC for further course of action,” said Behera.