A day after a 48-year-old man Rishi Pal died and three other workers Bishan Singh, Kiran Pal Kumar and Sumit, were in a critical condition after falling unconscious while cleaning a sewer inside the lNJP Hospital, family members of the deceased told The Pioneer that the sewer work was handed over by the Public Works Department (PWD) to a private contractor. “Rishi Pal was told that he would be paid a sum of Rs 16,000 for the monthly job of cleaning the sewers in the hospital,” said Naveen, a relative of Rishi Pal. “For a little over Rs 500 per day, Rishi Pal was asked to clean the sewer. With three children, a wife and parents to feed, he had no other option but to do the manual scavenging work,” added Naveen.
Rishi Pal had been doing this job for the last 18 years. It was not the first time that he risked his life to clean the sewers. like always, he asked his contractor for a safety gear but his request was ignored.
Relatives of the three cirtically ill men too agreed that the work handed over to the Junior Engineer of the PWD was further handed down to a private contractor.
Inderjeet, brother of Bishan Singh said, “My brother was called to clean the sewer by Ravi Prakash Meena, a Junior Engineer of the PWD and a private contractor Piyush. He left home at 12. By around 2.30 pm, we received a call that my brother was in a serious condition,”
While the family of Bishan Singh is worried about how his sickness will cost them, it is the family of the victim which is reeling under shock.
Waiting outside the administrative office of the hospital, Naveen, told The Pioneer, “A day has passed. No one has come forward to offer us any help.”
In a string of deaths due to the gross negligence of the civic authorities in the city, ten people have lost their lives in the past one-and-a-half months.
Although the Delhi Police registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and under Sections of the Manual Scavenging Act 2012, Delhi Police on Monday said that it was only in the case of the Shahdara Mall, where two brothers died while cleaning a sewer that the manager of the mall has been booked and arrested.
Meanwhile, more than a week ago, three sanitation workers died while cleaning a sewage tank at the lajpat Nagar area in south-east Delhi on August 6.
Talking to The Pioneer, Sonu, brother of Annu (28) who lost his life in the lajpat Nagar case, said that life has changed drastically for the poor family. “Although we received a compensation, money cannot fill the void,” he said.
like Rishi Pal, Annu too was working inside the sewer pit without any safety gear.