The Calcutta High Court has held the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the state authorities responsible for serious lapses that led to the deaths of four labourers and injuries to three while cleaning a sewer line in Kolkata in February 2021, Live Law reported.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Chaitali Chatterjee Das directed that Rs 30 lakh be paid to each of the dead workers’ family, in line with a Supreme Court ruling on compensation for manual scavenging deaths. The Rs 10 lakh paid earlier will be deducted from the amount.
The authorities were directed to pay the amount within three months, the legal news outlet reported.
The order passed on Friday also directed Rs 5 lakh as compensation within two months for the workers who were injured.
“Manual scavenging is a grave, human right, concern and its persistence is a blot on the nation’s conscience,” The Indian Express quoted the order as saying.
The court observed that mandatory monitoring mechanisms under the 2013 Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers Act had not been shown to exist, Live Law reported.
It also criticised an affidavit from the police referring only to a first information report against unidentified persons as inadequate.
The court directed the deputy commissioner of police to file a report on the incident and asked the West Bengal government to constitute a monitoring committee within one month.
The State Legal Services Authority was instructed to contact the affected families to ensure compensation is disbursed, Live Law reported.
The four workers, all from the state’s Malda district, were employed under the Kolkata Environment Infrastructure Improvement Project, a contractor hired by the municipal corporation, and were desilting sewers when the accident occurred.
They died or were injured after inhaling toxic fumes in the sewer.
The deceased were identified as 19-year-old Sabir Hossain, 35-year-old Mohammad Alamgir, 22-year-old Jahangir Alam and 20-year-old Liyakat Ali, The Hindu reported.
Following the unnatural deaths of the four labourers and injuries to four others in similar sewer-desilting work, the NGO Association for Protection of Democratic Rights and a civil rights activist had filed the public interest litigation through which the present case was heard.
Manual scavenging, which is the practice of removing human excreta by hand from sewer lines or septic tanks, is banned under the 2013 Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act.
However, the practice remains prevalent in several parts of the country.
Just 0.2% of readers pay for news. The others don’t care if it dies. You can help make a difference. Support independent journalism – join Scroll now.
We’re not driven by clicks or corporate interests – just honest, independent reporting. Keep us going. Support Scroll today!