Two Bengal workers die on Modi project site in Varanasi:Six other were also injured when a dilapidated building collapsed

Six other were also injured when a dilapidated building that the government was dismantling as part of Kashi Vishwanath Corridor collapsed

Narendra Modi: Telegraph picture

Piyush Srivastava   |   Lucknow   |   02.06.21: Two labourers from Bengal were killed and six injured in their sleep when a dilapidated building that the government was dismantling as part of Narendra Modi’s pet Kashi Vishwanath Corridor in Varanasi collapsed early on Tuesday.

Police have identified the deceased as Ebadul Momin, 27, and Aminul Momin, 45, hailing from Malda’s Kaliachak. The injured labourers, also from Kaliachak, are Mohammad Imran, Arif Momin, Shahid Akhtar, Sakiul Momin, Hakim Khan and Arif Momin (Aminul’s son).

Local people claimed that a part of the rundown Goenka Hostel had been razed two days ago, but the local administration and the project contractors had asked the labourers to sleep there. Around 30 labourers were sleeping inside the building when it caved in around 4am, the locals said.

Deepak Aggarwal, the local divisional commissioner, said “an inquiry would be conducted to find out why the labourers were sleeping in the dilapidated building”.

Rajesh Kumar, the labour contractor, said no arrangements were made for the labourers to sleep and that they slept wherever they could.

The Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, launched by Prime Minister Modi in 2018, is a project under which the area around the Kashi Vishwanath temple is being beautified by broadening streets and removing structures. The temple is now obscured by a maze of narrow lanes and cheek-by-jowl constructions. The project is being implemented jointly by the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government.

Awadhesh Kumar Pandey, additional commissioner of police of the Dashaswamedh area, said: “The injured have been admitted to Kabir Chaura Divisional Hospital in the city. The bodies of those who died have been sent for post-mortem. An inquiry will reveal why they were sleeping in the dilapidated building.”

A resident said, preferring anonymity: “The building collapsed at 4am. We believe there were 30 labourers sleeping there. We pulled out two bodies before the police arrived and cordoned off the area.”

Bereaved family members of Aminul Momin and Ebadul Momin:Soumya De Sarkar

This is the second accident at the project site in 10 days.

“A three-storey building had collapsed at Lahori Tola on April 23. Five labourers had suffered serious injuries,” the resident said.

The demolition of structures for the corridor had been opposed by Swaroopanand Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Dwarka-Sarda Peetham. He had claimed that 20 small temples had been demolished in Varanasi to widen streets.

Laying the foundation of the corridor on March 8, 2019, Modi had suggested that he had been chosen by God for the job. Modi had said Lord Shiva had told him: “Son, you speak a lot; come here and prove yourself by doing something.”

The family members at Shershahi village in Malda on Tuesday: Soumya De Sarkar

The Prime Minister had claimed that the Mughals had vandalised the Kashi Vishwanath temple. Some historians believe that emperor Aurangzeb had been infuriated when the Maharani of Kutch was dishonoured inside the temple and ordered its demolition. Ahilyabai Holkar, the hereditary noble sardar of the Maratha Empire, had refurbished the temple between 1777 and 1780.

Vishwambhar Nath Mishra, the mahant of Sankat Mochan temple in Varanasi, said he had come to know that a large number of labourers used to sleep at Goenka Hostel.

Referring to Modi’s assertion in 2014 that “Mother Ganga” had called him to Varanasi to contest the Lok Sabha election, Mishra told The Telegraph: “Nobody had called him here. He is imposing his whims and fancies on the city in the name of the Ganga and Kashi Vishwanath. While bodies (suspected to be of the Covid dead) are now floating in the Ganga, people are also dying in Varanasi because of his mindless corridor project.”

In Kaliachak, Aminul’s wife Asmina Khatun said he had promised to bring gifts for their children when he would have returned in a month.

Ebadul’s father Kalimuddin Sheikh said: “He went to Varanasi only 12 days ago. His death has ruined the family.”

Additional reporting by Soumya De Sarkar in Malda