Two dead while cleaning Sector 115 pumping station in Noida

Police identified the deceased as Khushal Singh, 24, and his cousin Vikas Singh, 26, both residents of Street Number 19 in Sector 49

Two workers engaged to clean a sewage tank on the Noida authority’s Sector 115 pumping station premises died during the cleaning work on Saturday afternoon. Two contractors have been arrested and a case of culpable homicide was registered against them, police said.

Khushal Singh, one of the victims.

While the family members of the deceased alleged they were not given safety gear, the authority officials said the safety gear could not help them as they slipped and fell. Authority officials said they have given an ex gratia of ₹6.5 lakh each to the family of the deceased and strict action would be taken against the contractor.

Police identified the deceased as Khushal Singh, 24, and his cousin Vikas Singh, 26, both residents of Street Number 19 in Sector 49.

“On Saturday evening, when I was busy with routine work, I received a phone call and was informed that my brother Khushal and Vikas, who went to clean a sewage tank in the Sector 115 treatment plant, died after slipping inside it,” reads the FIR filed by Brijesh Kumar, Khushal’s brother.

Kumar said, “There were lapses in safety while cleaning the tank. The contractor also did not give safety equipment to my brothers, which led to the incident.”

However, officials said that they were wearing masks and equipped with other safety equipment. “One of the deceased entered the sewage tank after wearing a mask, but when he was cleaning the tank using equipment, his foot slipped while standing on a step inside the tank. In a bid to save him, the other man entered, but he also slipped and fell,” Noida authority deputy general manager RP Singh said.

The official said that that the mask also came off as they slipped inside the tank; due to toxic gases and suffocation, they went unconscious. Subsequently, as other people in the treatment plant came to know about the incident, they rushed the duo to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared them dead and alerted police around 5pm.

Station house officer of the Sector 113 police station, Krishna Gopal Sharma, said, “On the complaint of Brijesh, a case under Section 105 (culpable homicide) of the BNS and Labour Act was registered against contractors Pushpendra Kumar, 44, a resident of Sector 41, and Ajit Kumar, 29, a resident of Bulandshahr. They were arrested.”