MADURAI: The city police have failed to invoke the The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, in connection with the death of two conservancy workers who got asphyxiated while cleaning the sewers without safety measures at HMS Colony on Wednesday.
SS Colony police have filed a case under section 304 (A) of the IPC against Corporation chief engineer A Mathuram, assistant engineer Mayilerinathan, drainage inspector Kannan and sub-contractor Das on charges of causing death by a rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide.
But human rights activists point out that the officials can be held accountable only if they are tried under the Manual Scavenging Prohibition Act as it clearly prohibits the engagement of workers for ‘hazardous cleaning’ of sewers without protective gear and monitoring.
As section 304 (A) is only generic, they say the officials can easily get acquitted by shifting the blame on the workers for not using protective gear.
The Manual Scavenging Prohibition Act, they point out, defines the violation unambiguously and provides stringent punishment. Section 7 of the Act prohibits engaging “either directly or indirectly, any person for hazardous cleaning of a sewer or a septic tank.”
A senior police officer said that prima facie the death appeared to be due to negligence and hence 304 (A) was invoked. He said that the Manual Scavenging Prohibition Act can be added at a later stage if necessary.
Meanwhile, the families of the victims G Muniyandi and D Viswanathan refused to receive their bodies after postmortem as the case was not registered under appropriate sections and the compensation of Rs 10 lakh to each family has not been given.