INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
1959 when she was 16 and a project worker.The garland placed respectfully by Nehru at the inauguration of the Panchet Dam -- now near
The turbulent tale came full circle November 17 when Budhni died in a shack in Panchet where she lived with her daughter Ratna
It was then that they sought a memorial in her honour, next to an existing statue of Nehru in a local park
They also demanded pension for Ratna (60).Bhairav Mandal, the chief of Panchet panchayat, and others have written to the DVC management
about the memorial and a house for Ratna in the local DVC colony
DVC is Damodar Valley Corporation, the PSU under which the dam was built and functions
decision on the memorial or the other demands had been taken so far
began in 1952 when her ancestral land was submerged during the construction of the dam
But she managed to stay afloat, becoming one of the first contract labourers in the project as she had no source of income other than
The DVC management had selected Budhni along with Ravan Manjhi, a Santhali man, to welcome Nehru
Local lore has it that Budhni pressed the button to get the dam going.In 1962, Budhni was retrenched along with scores of other DVC contract
There, Budhni met Sudhir Dutta, a contract worker in a colliery who gave her shelter and later married her.After Rajiv Gandhi visited
Asansol in Bengal as PM in 1985, a local Congress leader got Budhni to meet him and she narrated her ordeal
After that, Budhni was provided a job in DVC, from where she retired in 2005.
