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Ghaziabad sewer deaths: Families of victims get ₹10 lakh ex-gratia, say they don’t want to file FIRs
The families, however, said they don’t want file police complaints on the incident. The police said two families on Friday and three families on Saturday were handed over the bodies and ambulances were arranged for taking them to Samastipur.
The families of the five victims, who died in an under-construction sewer network near Krishna Kunj locality in Ghaziabad on Thursday, were given cheques of ₹10 lakh each on Saturday and they have returned to their villages in Samastipur, Bihar, with the bodies.
The families, however, said they don’t want file police complaints on the incident. The police said two families on Friday and three families on Saturday were handed over the bodies and ambulances were arranged for taking them to Samastipur.
Vijay Kumar, 40, his brother-in-law Shiv Kumar, 32, and their co-workers Horil, 35, Sanjeet, 30 and Damodar, 40 had suffocated to death inside the drain on Thursday afternoon. All five were working for the private contractor working on the UP Jal Nigam’s project of laying of 47km of sewer lines.
“We do not want to file an FIR. We have lost our only earning member but we request the government to help us and also provide us jobs to sustain ourselves,” said Meena Devi, Horil’s wife, said.
“We have small children to take care of. The money we are getting will help us, otherwise, we have no land or any earning member left in the family,” Sanju Devi, wife of Damodar Sada, said.
The two women and others were accompanied by Bihar’s Rosera MLA Dr Ashok Kumar. “They are very poor. They have received ₹10 lakh each and the Bihar government will also provide them ₹1 lakh each. They have not forwarded any complaints so far,” Kumar said.
“All the five families have been given their respective cheques and we also provided them ambulances so that the bodies can be taken to their villages. The rehabilitation of the families will be taken up by the government and the agency. The wives of four deceased and the son of Vijay Kumar will get a job with Jal Nigam in Ghaziabad,” Seema Diler, the member of National Commission of Safai Karamcharis, said.
