NHRC takes cognisance of Tuesday’s incident; two more die after falling in an STP on Wednesday
NHRC takes cognisance of Tuesday’s incident; two more die after falling in an STP on Wednesday
A day after falling inside a sewer while working on phone lines in Outer Delhi’s Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar, two contractual workers and a contractor with MTNL were declared dead on Wednesday at the end of an overnight rescue operation by several agencies. An e-rickshaw driver, who went inside the sewer to rescue the workers, was also declared dead, the police said.
The contractual workers were identified as Bacchu Singh, 54, and Pintu Raut, 32, and the contractor as Suraj Sahni, 54. The e-rickshaw driver was identified as 42-year-old Satish Kumar.
In another similar incident, two labourers working at a Delhi Jal Board (DJB) Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in East Delhi’s Kondli died on Wednesday after falling into the pit of the STP.
The deceased were identified as Nitesh, 25, and Yashdev, 35. Both of them hail from Uttar Pradesh. The police said that the two were called in the afternoon to carry out repair work but eventually fell into the pit. After a 2-hour-long rescue operation, the bodies were recovered but they were declared dead at a hospital.
DCP(East) Priyanka Purohit said that the plant belonged to the DJB and appropriate legal action will be taken.
Broken families
Outside the mortuary at Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital, where the bodies of the four were brought for post-mortem, the family members of the deceased said their kin were doing the job for the past several years without any safety gear.
Talking about the hazards his uncle faced during his work, Suraj Sahni, the nephew of Bacchu Singh, said, “He had sustained minor injuries around two years back while doing wirework but he never complained about the risks involved in the job…he had been doing this work for nearly 30 years. I never expected this to happen…he earned a meager salary which was just enough to cover his daily expenses”.
Another deceased, Pintu Raut, a daily wage labourer from Jharkhand, used to live in a one-room accommodation with his extended family in West Delhi’s Hari Nagar. His nephew, Lilandhar Kumar, said his family couldn’t afford the travel to receive his body and so he was attending to the formalities from here. Raut is survived by his wife and two children aged 9 and 12.
Kumar added that they came to know about his uncle’s death early on Wednesday. “We don’t know much about safety equipment. He never really trained for this kind of work,” the nephew said.
Puneet Chadha, Sahni’s nephew, said that his uncle had been working as a contractor for several years.
“We were informed about the incident at around 7 p.m., following which we rushed to the spot…the rescue operation took a lot of time and the bodies could be recovered only after midnight,” Chadha said. Sahni is survived by his wife, a 28-year-old son and a daughter.
DCP (Outer North) Brijendra Kumar Yadav said that a case was lodged under IPC sections pertaining to causing death by negligence against unknown persons.
Eyewitness account
According to eyewitnesses, the line work inside the sewer had been going on for the past several days. The linemen were said to be at work throughout the day.
“Initially, two workers were doing the line work inside the sewer and one worker was standing outside…soon he realised that his colleagues were not responding and called the contractor who went to check on them…but he too fell inside it,” Moinuddin Qureshi, a vegetable vendor near the spot said.
“Soon, the e-rickshaw driver came and tried to rescue them but he too got trapped…all of us were scared and called the police,” he added.
Taking cognisance
Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday issued notice to the Delhi Chief Secretary, Delhi Police Commissioner and Chairperson of MTNL over the incident.
In the statement, NHRC said that it has taken suo motu cognisance of media reports about the death of three MTNL workers and a rickshaw driver. It asked for the reports within four weeks.
The human rights body also raised concern that despite the laws, Supreme Court judgments and its own interventions for providing safety equipment to workers, people were still dying while working in sewer lines, “which was completely unwarranted”.
Senior NDRF officers said that initially they planned to send a diver inside the sewage line with equipment for the rescue but due to the lack of space and methane gas build-up, the plan was dropped and excavators were called instead to widen the hole.
NHRC takes cognisance of Tuesday’s incident; two more die after falling in an STP on Wednesday NHRC takes cognisance of Tuesday’s incident; two more die after falling in an STP on Wednesday A day after falling inside a sewer while working on phone lines in Outer Delhi’s Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar, two contractual workers and a contractor with MTNL were declared dead on Wednesday at the end of an overnight rescue operation by several agencies. An e-rickshaw driver, who went inside the sewer to rescue the workers, was also declared dead, the police said.The contractual workers were identified as Bacchu Singh, 54, and Pintu Raut, 32, and the contractor as Suraj Sahni, 54. The e-rickshaw driver was identified as 42-year-old Satish Kumar.In another similar incident, two labourers working at a Delhi Jal Board (DJB) Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in East Delhi’s Kondli died on Wednesday after falling into the pit of the STP.The deceased were identified as Nitesh, 25, and Yashdev, 35. Both of them hail from Uttar Pradesh. The police said that the two were called in the afternoon to carry out repair work but eventually fell into the pit. After a 2-hour-long rescue operation, the bodies were recovered but they were declared dead at a hospital.DCP(East) Priyanka Purohit said that the plant belonged to the DJB and appropriate legal action will be taken. Broken families Outside the mortuary at Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital, where the bodies of the four were brought for post-mortem, the family members of the deceased said their kin were doing the job for the past several years without any safety gear. Talking about the hazards his uncle faced during his work, Suraj Sahni, the nephew of Bacchu Singh, said, “He had sustained minor injuries around two years back while doing wirework but he never complained about the risks involved in the job…he had been doing this work for nearly 30 years. I never expected this to happen…he earned a meager salary which was just enough to cover his daily expenses”.Another deceased, Pintu Raut, a daily wage labourer from Jharkhand, used to live in a one-room accommodation with his extended family in West Delhi’s Hari Nagar. His nephew, Lilandhar Kumar, said his family couldn’t afford the travel to receive his body and so he was attending to the formalities from here. Raut is survived by his wife and two children aged 9 and 12.Kumar added that they came to know about his uncle’s death early on Wednesday. “We don’t know much about safety equipment. He never really trained for this kind of work,” the nephew said.Puneet Chadha, Sahni’s nephew, said that his uncle had been working as a contractor for several years.“We were informed about the incident at around 7 p.m., following which we rushed to the spot…the rescue operation took a lot of time and the bodies could be recovered only after midnight,” Chadha said. Sahni is survived by his wife, a 28-year-old son and a daughter.DCP (Outer North) Brijendra Kumar Yadav said that a case was lodged under IPC sections pertaining to causing death by negligence against unknown persons. Eyewitness account According to eyewitnesses, the line work inside the sewer had been going on for the past several days. The linemen were said to be at work throughout the day.“Initially, two workers were doing the line work inside the sewer and one worker was standing outside…soon he realised that his colleagues were not responding and called the contractor who went to check on them…but he too fell inside it,” Moinuddin Qureshi, a vegetable vendor near the spot said.“Soon, the e-rickshaw driver came and tried to rescue them but he too got trapped…all of us were scared and called the police,” he added. Taking cognisance Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday issued notice to the Delhi Chief Secretary, Delhi Police Commissioner and Chairperson of MTNL over the incident.In the statement, NHRC said that it has taken suo motu cognisance of media reports about the death of three MTNL workers and a rickshaw driver. It asked for the reports within four weeks.The human rights body also raised concern that despite the laws, Supreme Court judgments and its own interventions for providing safety equipment to workers, people were still dying while working in sewer lines, “which was completely unwarranted”.Senior NDRF officers said that initially they planned to send a diver inside the sewage line with equipment for the rescue but due to the lack of space and methane gas build-up, the plan was dropped and excavators were called instead to widen the hole.