Vigilance committees to check sewer deaths in Delhi | Latest News Delhi - Hindustan Times
close_game
close_game

Vigilance committees to check sewer deaths in Delhi

Hindustan Times | By, New Delhi
Aug 19, 2017 10:48 PM IST

“The vigilance committee will be headed by the district magistrate and will include two MLAs, police officials, deputy commissioner of municipal corporations and four social workers, among others

The Delhi government has nearly completed the process for forming district level vigilance committees that will keep watch on the ground and try and prevent any more deaths in the Capital’s sewers.

Nine people were killed in the city’s sewers in a span of one month in three separate incidents.
Nine people were killed in the city’s sewers in a span of one month in three separate incidents.

The move comes after nine people were killed in the city’s sewers in a span of one month in three separate incidents. The latest of these incidents took place on August 12 and claimed the lives of two brothers cleaning a sewage tank without safety gear at a mall in east Delhi.

Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.

Earlier, on August 6, three private sanitation workers had died inside a Delhi Jal Board-managed sewer line in Lajpat Nagar. Before that, four labourers suffocated to death while trying to clean a rainwater harvesting pit which had turned into a sewage-filled septic tank due to lack of maintenance in Ghitorni on July 16.

“The vigilance committee will be headed by the district magistrate and will include two MLAs, police officials, deputy commissioner of municipal corporations and four social workers, among others. The notification regarding the committees will be issued in a day or two,” water minister Rajendra Pal Gautam said.

Another committee, which will implement provisions of the Manual Scavenging Act, will also be formed for keeping an eye on the vigilance committees.

“This panel will be headed by the chief minister and will include the MCD commissioners, police commissioner, representatives of different workers’ unions, a representative of Delhi Cantonment Board, of the New Delhi Municipal Council, four social workers and one Delhi Jal Board member. The approval for this too should be done by Monday or Tuesday,” Gautam said.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has called an emergency meeting over sewage deaths. The meeting will be held on Tuesday and all Delhi Jal Board executive engineers and officials above them have been asked to attend it.

Manual scavenging was banned in the country in 1993. However, since 1994, more than 80 people have died in the drains and manholes of the Capital alone.

Section 7 of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, states that no person, local authority or any agency shall engage or employ, either directly or indirectly, any person for hazardous cleaning of a sewer or a septic tank.

Unveiling 'Elections 2024: The Big Picture', a fresh segment in HT's talk show 'The Interview with Kumkum Chadha', where leaders across the political spectrum discuss the upcoming general elections. Watch now!
SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Share this article
  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    author-default-90x90

    Ritam Halder has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked in multiple roles across organisations. He has been a features writer, a digital journalist as well as a desk hand. He now covers environment, water and urban issues in Delhi.

SHARE
Story Saved
Live Score
OPEN APP
Saved Articles
Following
My Reads
Sign out
New Delhi 0C
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Start 14 Days Free Trial Subscribe Now
Follow Us On