It was Sunday at midnight. Around 30 migrant workers were in deep sleep after a hard day’s work. A devastating fire engulfed the godown where they were sleeping. There was no escape route for the workers, as the door was locked and no firefighting system was installed.
Rules of the land were violated as usual. The fire continued for days, despite the sincere efforts of fire brigade personnel.
The bodies were charred in the intense heat and were beyond identification, not fit for immediate forensic examination. As a result, nobody knows the exact death toll; estimates are hovering around 21 as of now.
The location was Nazirabad Road in the Anandapur area of East Kolkata, where, like many others, this illegal godown had existed for years. The godown was created by filling up the East Kolkata wetlands, an offence in the eyes of the law, but the political–land shark nexus hardly cared. Since 2002, there have been numerous instances of illegal waterbody filling, with zero action from the police and administration.
This godown was owned and used as a workplace by a decorating company that catered to flower decorations, a booming business during the ongoing marriage season in Kolkata and its suburbs. A portion of the godown was hired by Wow! Momo, a fairly well-known momo chain in Kolkata and its suburbs.
The hapless migrant workers had come from the Midnapore district, sourced by labour contractors.
These workers are deprived of any social benefits or financial support in the event of disasters and are forced to remain content with meagre daily wages. A little extra earning helps them survive and take care of their personal and family expenses. A significant cut goes to ruling party goons, sections of the state administration, and police personnel.
The state administration, along with ministers and VIPs, remained busy throughout Monday with Independence Day celebrations, preaching “social justice” as guaranteed by our Constitution, and did not even bother to visit the site to oversee rescue operations. They simply ignored the tragedy and made a hurried announcement of ₹10 lakh compensation to the next of kin, and that was the end of their responsibility.
If one crosses Ruby Hospital on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass in East Kolkata, the tall towers of Urbana Housing—a multi-crore residential complex built for the rich and wealthy—are visible from a distance. Just beyond that lies a gloomy neighbourhood of illegal godowns and warehouses, locally referred to as “sheds.” This unusual coexistence of wealth and poverty is common along the eastern fringes of Kolkata. A simple comparison of satellite images from 2002 and the present clearly shows how wetlands have been encroached upon and illegal constructions have mushroomed over the years.
This wetland area on the eastern fringes of Kolkata was identified as a Ramsar site on August 19, 2002, and any filling up or construction activity undertaken after that date is blatantly illegal. But who cares? Since the political regime change in 2011, illegal wetland filling in Bengal has only gained momentum. The political establishment, sections of the administration, and lumpen cadres have been looting the state through land grabbing, illegal sales and transfers, extortion from builders, and syndicates controlling building materials. The ruling party needs to sustain an army of lumpen elements surviving on this parallel economy, especially since no major industrial projects have come up in West Bengal after the Singur debacle.
This utter callousness of the administration and entrenched corruption have become institutionalised, and there appears to be no light at the end of this dark tunnel.
The poor and hapless workers will continue to be victims. Their families will accept these tragedies as “fate,” while political lumpens will have the final say in the state. Nobody dares to protest, and similar or even greater miseries await us down the road.
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*Based in Singapore. Recently in West Bengal
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