Congress demands ₹1 cr. for kin of victims

Party accuses civic agencies of neglect

The Delhi Congress on Tuesday accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and the BJP-ruled municipal corporations of neglect for the death of 10 workers while cleaning drains in the past few months and pushed for ₹1 crore compensation for the affected families.

Speaking at a press conference here, Delhi Congress spokesperson Sharmistha Mukherjee said the recent incidents of workers dying after inhaling toxic gases in the drains could have been prevented had the authorities adopted safety measures.

Ban on practice

She said Parliament had passed a law banning manual scavenging in 2013 when the UPA was in power.

The Congress government in Delhi had also issued a circular in December that year banning manual cleaning of sewers, Ms. Mukherjee further said.

‘Irresponsible remark’

Hitting out against the AAP government, she said Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam’s statement in the wake of the most recent incident was “irresponsible”.

The Minister had said that the government would put up hoardings to spread awareness about the ban on manual scavenging.

Ms. Mukherjee said this was after the Delhi government had failed to prevent the deaths.

‘Swachh Bharat failed’

She added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan had also failed to improve sanitation in the Capital, despite the allocation of thousands of crores.

The party also demanded that government give ₹1 crore each to the families of the workers.