Himachal Health Minister Thakur Kaul Singh has expressed displeasure on the way the situation arising due to dispute between the contractor and the labour was handled at IIT Mandi leading to the death of four persons.
The Minister, who is also an MlA from the area, said that the dispute could have been easily settled amicably and violence could have been avoided.
Officials here are also looking at why longstanding wages of the labour had not been paid to the workers which was the root cause of the trouble in which four lives of innocent persons were lost.Under heavy security of armed police, five seriously injured security guards of the contractor injured at IIT Mandi in Komand were referred to PGI Chandigarh. The four dead bodies were also handed over after postmortem to the relatives and sent to Fatehgarh (Punjab) escorted by armed police.It is being alleged here that had the IIT management, Police and the district authorities at Mandi could not make correct assessment of the gravity of the labour trouble brewing in the IIT complex Komand since long. The tragedy ,which struck on Saturday resulting in the deaths of four persons and injuring 9 others, could have been averted.Deputy Commissioner, Sanjiv Kadam, was out of Mandi on the fateful day when four persons were beaten to death after they opened fire at the slogan shouting workers, which triggered violence culminating attack by the angry mob on them.
If the authorities had taken preventive measures by deputing the nearby contingents of the Third Battalion of HP Police at Pandoh at Komand in the the bloodshed could have been avoided.