New Delhi: Bipin Ram (42) and Pankaj Sharma (45) travel to Delhi every year from Bihar’s Khagaria district to give their families back home a slightly better life. Both live in Mandawli’s Railway Colony while working this year at an under-construction building in Chawri Bazar as labourers.On Thursday, their relatives rushed there after the four-storey under-construction building came crashing down. As of Thursday night, Bipin and Pankaj were among the workers feared trapped.According to Bipin’s cousin, he wanted to be home for Diwali. “But the contractor convinced him to work for a few more days. He was planning to leave for Bihar Saturday to celebrate Chhath Puja with his wife and children,” said Suresh Pandey.A father of five, Bipin had started coming to Delhi almost 10 years ago whenever an opportunity for work came up. Six months ago, he, along with a few other men from Khagaria, was brought here by a contractor for constructing this building.“How can a building just fall?” wondered Pandey. According to locals, the construction was being fast-tracked to finish the work before anti-pollution winter restrictions kicked in. A neighbour said three floors were built in just over a month and the hastily done work might’ve led to the incident.Pankaj had started coming to Delhi 15 years ago. According to his relative, Virendra Kumar, he had started working as a labourer and now earns Rs 20,000 every month, most of which he sends to his family in Bihar.Kumar said, “Pankaj didn’t mind being in Delhi during Diwali, because it meant that he would get to spend Chhath Puja with his family. Now his wife and children are rushing to this city, praying for him to be rescued from the rubble.”
