The tragic death of five people inside a private housing colony in Moti Nagar area of West district has taken a political turn after Aam Aadmi Partty (AAP) MLA and Vice Chairman of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) alleged that the STP plant where the accident occurred comes under the jurisdiction of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-controlled municipal corporation. The five unfortunate labourers died after they inhaled poisonous gases while trying to clean the sewerage of the residential complex.
"When a private entity develop a society or mall, they take permissions from concerned authorities to set up an STP under building by-laws. In this particular case was by the North MCD," said Mohaniya.
The incident happened on Sunday inside DLF Green Apartments in west Delhi's Moti Nagar area, in which Sarfaraz, Pankaj, Raja and Umesh and Vishal aged between 22 and 30 years had died. Two of them died on the spot; others were declared dead by doctors at a hospital.
Clarifying the jurisdictions, Mohania added that I want to clear that in this case this sewer line and STP both are owned by DLF. "It is a solo responsibility of DLF, why DLF is not taking responsibility, "Moreover, MCD gave permission them for the STP," the AAP leader said.
Meanwhile, BJP leader and in opposition , Vjiender Gupta said , "AAP's response on the behalf of DJB is irresponsible, " DJB is solely responsible for the set up of Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) anywhere in Delhi. This is applicable everywhere , the party is playing politics on the death of five persons.. every month people are dying .. where are the equipments they(DJB) bought earlier, who will issue guidelines and where were the engineers, Gupta asked.
It is pertinent to mention here that in June month , Delhi government had decided to prepare a list of manual scavengers.
The government in its official statement had then said that they would be hiring 200 sewer cleaning machines, each of which would apparently provide jobs to four persons and thus create 800 jobs.
The purchase of the machines would be funded by the State Bank of India, the National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC) and the Delhi State SC, ST, OBC Finance Development Corporation (DSFDC).
On Monday, the Delhi government ordered a probe into the incident. Labour Minister Gopal Rai has directed the labour commissioner to submit a probe report within three days.Ajay Chaudhary, an engineer with JLL company - tasked with the maintenance of the septic tank - was arrested by Delhi Police on Monday for negligence.