NEW DELHI: Two sanitation workers, both hailing from West Bengal, died after allegedly inhaling poisonous fumes inside a sewage shaft at a house in Noida, police said on Saturday.
The incident took place on Friday evening when Nooni Mandal and Tapan Mandal were working at the residence of an individual named Sumit Chawla in Sector 26.
According to police officials, both workers hailed from Malda district in West Bengal and were residing in a slum in Noida Sector 9.
“An individual in Noida Sector 26 had hired two persons for cleaning of the septic tank at his home. Last night, while cleaning the tank, the duo became unconscious. They were taken to a hospital but did not survive,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Noida) Vidya Sagar Mishra said.
Sharing details, another police officer said the two deceased had arrived at the house at 7 pm on Friday and had entered the sewage shaft area to clean it.
A source said that both men were taken to the hospital after 11.15 pm and were already dead by the time the doctors checked on them.
Police said they have inspected the incident site and have informed the families of the two deceased.
Here, we may recall the an October 2023 order by the Supreme Court, issuing a slew of directives to both the Union and state governments, focussing on the effective implementation of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act of 2013. These directives encompassed active measures for rehabilitating victims and their families, providing scholarships, and skill development opportunities.
While pronouncing the judgment, the top court bench comprising Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Justice Aravind Kumar observed that large segment of India’s population continues to be involved in the practice of manual scavenging as “unseen, unheard and mute in bondage, systematically trapped in inhuman conditions”.