Court wants authorities to explain how the practice of manual scavenging is still continuing, despite it being prohibited under the law
Following the recent death of as many as 10 sanitation workers due to toxic fumes from the sewers, the Delhi High Court on Monday directed the heads of all civic bodies in the national Capital to be present before it on September 18, to explain how such an activity was going on despite being prohibited under the law.
A Bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Sunil Gaur was informed by amicus curiae Sanjay Poddar that in little over a month, 10 sanitation workers have died while cleaning sewers in the national Capital without any protective gear or safety measures in place. All of them had suffocated to death due to the toxic fumes in the sewer lines.
The court, thereafter, sought the presence of the Commissioners of the three municipal corporations, heads of Delhi Jal Board (DJB), Public Works Department (PWD), Delhi Cantonment Board, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), and the Divisional Railway Manager of Northern Railway. It directed the Delhi government to immediately pay a compensation of Rs 10 lakh per person, as provided under the rules, and listed the matter for a compliance report on September 18.
It also directed the District Magistrates to furnish their enquiry reports in each of the incidents. The court stated that they have to inform it about the officials responsible for these incidents. The Bench also wondered where the manual scavengers were coming from, when the surveys undertaken by the municipal bodies showed no persons engaged in such activities.
It directed the heads of the various authorities to bring with them the relevant records, indicating the number of persons engaged directly or indirectly through contractors in the work of manual scavenging or those exposed to hazardous environments, which are prohibited under the law.
The court said the records should contain the details of the works, contractors engaged, and the number of employees in each case. The officials also have to inform the court about the existing procedure to clean the sewers or septic tanks. The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed in 2007 for rehabilitation of manual scavengers.
It had earlier termed as "disgraceful" the existence of manual scavenging in the city, despite a law prohibiting such a practice, and had said: "We are a country of poor people but not for the poor people."
"It is ridiculous and shocking," the court had observed when informed by the Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) that one of the manual scavengers was a graduate. In an interim report, the DSLSA had said there were manual scavengers in the national Capital even after the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, came into force.
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