After keeping Spiti’s roads alive, daily-wage workers win in court but remain without work

Every summer, as the snow recedes from the cold desert of Spiti, the race to reconnect its isolated villages begins. The roads that link settlements such as Kibber, Langza, Rangrik and Shego to the outside world are often scarred by months of heavy snowfall, landslides and freezing temperatures. For years, restoring these lifelines fell largely to local daily-wage workers employed on Public Works Department (PWD) muster rolls.In July 2023, that work came to an abrupt halt.“There was no written order. We were simply told not to come from the next day,” recalled Mentok Dolma, 35, of Pangmo village in Kaza subdivision, who had worked as a muster roll labourer with the PWD since 2020. A Class XII graduate and mother of two, Mentok said the job which fetched her around Rs 12,000 a month was amo