Two labourers died while cleaning a septic tank of an under-renovated building in Prem Nagar of Rohini on Tuesday.
The men died of asphyxia, while three other men who had entered the septic tank to rescue the duo fell unconscious and are undergoing treatment in hospital.
According to SD Mishra, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Rohini district, police got a police control room (PCR) call around 2 pm, and a team reached the spot and took the five labourers to Ambedkar Hospital, where two of them Deepak (30) and Ganesh Saha (35) were declared brought dead. While Rambir (33), Sher Singh (40) and Bablu (40) are undergoing treatment at hospital. They are residents of Bhagya Vihar in Prem Nagar,” said the DCP.
“The owner had called these labourers to clean the septic tank of the house. Two of them had entered the septic tank and they fell unconscious. Seeing the plight of the duo, three others who were there, entered into the tank in a bid to rescue them. The intensity of the poisonous gas was so high that they too fell unconscious,” said the DCP.
“A case has been registered under appropriate sections and action will be taken as per law. It is also being ascertained whether the labourers were wearing safety gears or not,” said the DCP.
Manual scavenging is an offence under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013. In February, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal flagged off a fleet of 200 sewer cleaning machines.
On May 3, two workers died while working inside a sewage tank in Noida’s Sector 39. A team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was called to pull out the two workers from the tank. It was believed that the men died due to water suddenly gushing inside the tank.