A 26-year-old conservancy worker was asphyxiated while cleaning drains in a gated community at Kochadai here on Saturday.
N. Solainathan, a Dalit and resident of Heera Nagar near Melavasal, and two others were involved in the work without any protective gears.
Kalidas from Palanganatham said he and a few others went to the gated community, Santhi Sadan, a couple of days ago to remove a block in the drainage.
To carry out the work, the men temporarily blocked sewage at one place using sand-laden sacks. On Saturday, Kalidas said he was called by the residents’ association again to remove the temporarily created block. M. Udhaykumar, one of the men involved in the work, said Solainathan got inside the sewer first, which was about 15-feet deep.
“As he tried to remove the block, he was asphyxiated due to the presence of poisonous gases and fell inside,” Udhaykumar said, adding that he attempted to rescue Solainathan, but could not as he also inhaled the gas.
M. Nagendran, Solainathan’s father, said his son got married only about a year ago and his daughter-in-law, Muthulakshmi, was expecting a child.
Family members and activists urged the police to register a case under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act of 2013 and The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015 against the residents’ association for involving workers in the hazardous work.
Police said that they had just received a complaint from Muthulakshmi but they are yet to register a case.
He and two others were engaged to clean drains in a gated community without protective gears
