New Delhi, Aug 23 : Two Public Works Department (PWD) engineers of Delhi government were suspended on Wednesday in connection with the death of a worker while cleaning the sewer of a government hospital, Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal said.
On Sunday, 40-year-old Rishi Pal died while cleaning the sewer of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital in central Delhi, while three others were taken ill after inhaling poisonous gas from the sewer.
"Two PWD engineers suspended in the incident of unfortunate death of sewer worker on Sunday. Zero tolerance for negligence in such cases," Baijal tweeted on Wednesday evening.
It was the 10th such death in Delhi in barely over a month.
On Tuesday evening, police also arrested one person in connection with the incident but the contractor was absconding till Wednesday evening.
The maintenance of the LNJP Hospital sewer was the responsibility of PWD and they had outsourced the work to a private contractor.
One of the survivors had told IANS they were not given any safety equipment to clean the sewer and they had cleaned another sewer in the same hospital on Saturday without any safety gear.
On Monday, Delhi Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam announced a blanket ban on manual cleaning of sewers and warned that anyone found violating the rules will be booked under culpable homicide.
He also said that a committee had been formed to find out the best possible ways or machines to clean the gutters, within 15 days.
On August 12, two brothers suffocated to death while cleaning a septic pit at a mall in Shahdara in east Delhi.
On August 6, three persons died after inhaling toxic gases while cleaning a sewer in Lajpat Nagar in south Delhi.
On July 15, four persons died after inhaling poisonous gases as they entered a water harvesting tank in Ghitorni in south Delhi.
In all the four cases, there was no safety equipment for the workers.
