CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Monday directed the State government to provide immediately the mandatory succour to the families of the three persons, who died due to asphyxiation while cleaning a septic tank at a hotel in Sriperumbudur.The First Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose, before which social activist A Narayanan of Change India filed a PIL petition, directed the Tamil Nadu government to immediately release the compensation due to the families of the three men, who were engaged in manual cleaning on February 14.
Narayanan contended that even though adequate awareness was being created in keeping with the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act passed in 2013, such incidents continued to occur.
Three men were asphyxiated, while cleaning a septic tank at Ponthur near Sriperumbudur on February 14. The incident took place around 2.30 pm, when Murugesan and Mari were cleaning the tank at a hotel on the Oragadam Road. Murugesan fell into the tank and after inhaling fumes, he died. Another worker Mari and Ravi, who was supervising the work on behalf of the hotel management, tried to rescue them. But they also inhaled the poisonous gas, fell into the tank and died.