RAGHUNATH MANWAR
Sri Mangabhai Patel is an asbestos victim from India.
He worked for the thermal power plant in Ahmedabad that was the capital of the State of Gujarat until 1970,after which the capital was transferred to Gandhinagar.
The plant is owned by Ahmedabad Electric Company. It was a state-owned company, at present it is partly privatised, with shares owned by Torrent group, whose main interests are in the pharmaceutical industry. The thermal power plant was established in 1945, though in 1913, it was established to generate power using diesel. Mangabhai was an unemployed youth and regularly visited the power plant where large numbers of job seekers waited at the gate like him. Eight to10 people from his village, Chandkheda, worked in the plant. He beseeched them to take him with them and help to get him employed.
They advised him to be at the gate daily at 8 a.m. If there is a need for labourers in the plant, people would ring up the gate and ask the personnel department to send labourers.
Absenteeism was always high in the boiler department,where he was sent most frequently, working there most days. He was classified as a ‘non-card casual labourer’ from 1965. In those days there were 25 boilers and 16 turbines. In 1973, he was given the status of ‘card
holder casual labourer’.

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