Hyderabad: Taking serious note of the fire accident on March 22 in a timber godown at Bhoiguda which claimed the lives of 11 guest workers, the Telangana High Court on Monday issued notices to the Chief Secretary, principal secretary of labour and employment, commissioner of labour and the Hyderabad Collector, directing them to explain within four weeks what led to the mishap.
The court, which took up a suo moto petition, directed the authorities to state whether or not the victims were eligible to get compensation under the laws promulgated for the benefit of guest workers.
The was taken up by the court after converting a letter addressed by Kanthi Kiran Bhargav, vice-president of Watch Voice of the People, a non-government organisation based in Mahbubnagar, who requested directions to the government to constitute a judicial committee to probe into the incident as there was allegedly some mystery behind the fire accident and to help the kin of the victims.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavali directed the government to inform the court whether the dependants of the victim were eligible to get welfare under the Interstate Migrant Workmen Act 1979, Employees Compensation Act 1923, Employees Provident Fund Act etc., and whether the various Acts cited were being implemented in Telangana or not, so that the kith and kin of these migrant labourers could be extended some financial help.
