The Madras High Court Bench here has issued statutory notice to Municipal Administration Secretary in a contempt of court application filed by an Arunthathiyar (a Scheduled Caste) woman who was reportedly not paid full compensation of Rs.10 lakh for the death of her son due to manual scavenging as determined by the Supreme Court.
Justice R. Mahadevan issued the notice requiring the presence of the Secretary on the next date of hearing after the applicant P. Valiyakka (69) of Ramanathapuram district claimed that the State government had paid her a solatium of only Rs.3 lakh after the High Court on June 19 last directed it to comply with the 2014 apex court directive in Safai Karamchari Andolan case.
The applicant’s counsel R. Karunanidhi pointed out that her son P. Arumugam was eking out a living through conservancy work. He was engaged by the municipality as well as private individuals for cleaning septic tanks and removing human excreta from dry toilets. His wife was pregnant when he died due to asphyxiation on October 13, 2004.
After his death, his wife gave birth to a baby girl and left her in the care of the petitioner before she got remarried. The aged woman was raising the child on her own with great difficulties. A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court on March 27, 2014 ordered implementation of the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993. The Bench, led by the then Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam, issued a direction to identify families of conservancy workers who died pursuant to the enactment and pay them Rs.10 lakh each. Hence, Mr. Justice Mahadevan had directed the State to consider Ms. Valiyakka’s plea .
