With no arrests made days after four people died of asphyxiation in a manhole in Doddaballapur near here, members of the All India Central Council of Trade Unions, BBMP Contract Pourakarmikas Association, civil society, non-governmental organisations and activists knocked on the door of the Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) here on Thursday seeking justice.
Terming the deaths as “murder” and not “accident”, they sought action to put an end to the banned practice of manual scavenging that urban local bodies are wilfully letting flourish despite legal provisions against the same.
On Sunday, Jagan and Goundar — labourers who worked for a Hyderabad-based contractor — had entered a 15-ft deep manhole to unclog it. Two more people, Madhu and Muniraju, who were passing by, rushed to their help, only to slip into the manhole and die of asphyxiation. The Doddaballapur police then registered cases against the officials of the town municipality and the contractor under the Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, the SC and the ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and IPC Section 304 (A) (death due to negligence).
But those protesting argued that there were no specific officials named in the case. “Even in the past, 40 deaths have happened, but not a single principal employer has been arrested though it is mandated by the law,” said K.B. Obalesh from the Safai Karamchari Kavalu Samithi.
Terming the deaths of workers as “institutional murder”, Clifton Rosario from the Alternative Law Forum said the DMA had to ensure that not a single worker will be forced to manually clean septic tanks and manholes. “The DMA said they have asked for a report from the CMC, when the municipality is the culprit,” he said, adding that in most circumstances, the value of the worker is spoken about only when they die.
