Abu Dhabi/Dubai: A worker was awarded Dh500,000 compensation by the Dubai Court seven years after a construction site accident left him paralysed.
Deen Dayal, who was a mason, fell at a construction site in 2006. He was 26 then. He underwent treatment for about a year-and-a-half in Dubai after which he was flown to his home town Mandawa in Jhunjhun district of Rajasthan, India.
He speaks with great difficulty and is completely bedridden.
Happy at last
“We are happy the court awarded the compensation. It will help us further his medical treatment and meet his day to day expenses,” his brother Sreeram, who works as a mason in Abu Dhabi, told XPRESS.
When Dayal landed in Dubai seven years ago, Sreeram and his family were hoping for better days as they were barely managing to make ends meet.
“Our father died when we were very young. With my meagre income, most of which I sent back home, my family of nine, including four children and three younger siblings who were studying then, we could barely manage to meet the day to day expenses. When Dayal came to Dubai, I felt relieved. He was like my pillar of strength.
“We had many dreams… getting our sister married, good education for our brother and children and a comfortable life for our mother, who had only seen struggles till then.
Dayal worked here for less than four years, but everything was ruined when he met with this accident and was totally disabled,” said a tearful Sreeram who is now the only earning member of the family.
Dayal was engaged and the family was planning for his wedding when the tragic accident happened.
The accident caused him head injuries, cervical and lumbar disc fractures and for over a year, he was in Rashid Hospital in Dubai. Dayal was found unconscious at the site. He lost his memory and even after seven years doesn’t remember anything about the incident.
To add to the misery Dayal could not recognise his family members in those initial months. More bad news was to come.
Back home, his engagement was called off and “people started saying that he had passed away”, said Sreeram. “It has been only pain for us.”
After several appeals, a Dubai civil court awarded Dh500,000 compensation. “Initially there was a criminal case after which this case started in 2009. We made several appeals and it was found the company did not have sufficient safety measures in place for the workers. The money has been received and the compensation will help the family now,” said Dayal’s lawyer Vinod Verma.
