The officials responsible for the city's cleanliness system are not even averse to getting the sanitation workers to do inhuman work. Their lives are being risked for sewer cleaning. We are talking about Karnal Municipal Corporation, where the sanitation workers are being made to clean the sewerage with bare hands without safety equipment. Getting down into the sewerage filled with poisonous gases without safety equipment is like a fight with death.
According to the 'Manual Scavenging Act 2013' and the Supreme Court's October 2023 order, it is a punishable offense to get any sanitation worker down into the sewer-septic tank without safety equipment. Despite this, the officials of Karnal Municipal Corporation are turning a blind eye. The workers are forced to bear the brunt of this. Those who clean the sewer without safety equipment are exposed to various poisonous gases. These include hydrogen disulfide, carbon oxide, ammonia and methane. Exposure to these gases can cause vision loss, respiratory problems and even seizures. Hydrogen disulfide gas can also cause death due to suffocation.
Vice Chairman of Safai Karamchari Aayog Azad Singh said that cleaning of sewerage manually is completely banned. If anyone does this, inform the Safai Karamchari Aayog, strict legal action will be taken. He said that now machines have arrived for cleaning sewerage. Municipal Corporation's XEN Satish said that cleaning of sewerage lines is done by machines, if ever needed, then the Safai Karamchari goes with the operator with safety equipment. He said that there is no information about getting work done in the sewer manually, it will be found out.
19 lives lost in one year
"Getting sewerage cleaned manually by Safai Karamchari or anyone else is illegal. The person who gets this done, be it a contractor or an officer, can be punished. Safai Karamcharis are compelled to go down into the sewers and clean them with their hands, they have to do this inhuman work for their livelihood. Due to fear, they are unable to ask for safety equipment. 19 deaths have occurred in Haryana in one year while doing this work. - Rajkumar Bohat, State Convenor, National Safai Karamchari Andolan
Source: Justice News
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