CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has ordered a probe by the Collector of Rayagada into the death of three sanitation workers at Sankarda village in Kashipur area on October 29. The deaths were caused due to asphyxiation while the sanitation workers were cleaning the toilet tank in an under-construction building.
The court ordered the inquiry while hearing the suo motu PIL it had registered under the title ‘Deaths of sanitation workers’ on Saturday. Initially, the PIL was registered in connection with the tragic deaths in Cuttack city and Bhubaneswar, on April 19, 2021. Later the court brought under the purview of the PIL the death of sanitation workers that occurred in Phulbani on May 31. Amicus Curiae Bibhu Prasad Tripathy filed a memo on the deaths at Sankarda, a FIR on which had been registered at Tikiri police station.
Taking note of it a division bench of S Muralidhar and Justice BP Routray in its order said, “The court directs the District Collector, Rayagada to immediately enquire into the matter, ensure that compensation is paid by the State as mandated in the judgment of Supreme Court of India in Safai Karmachari Andolan v. Union of India (2014) as well as the provisions of the Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (‘PEMSR Act’). The report along with the compliance affidavit be filed by the Collector, Rayagada in this Court before the next date (December 4).”
On July 6, the court had directed the State Counsel to file a detailed report in connection with the deaths in Phulbani. But no report had been received so far on the incident in which two persons, one of them an ex-serviceman and the other a labourer had died. The death occurred when both of them entered into a newly constructed septic tank of a house in Pitabari village.
The Bench in its order also said: “A direction is issued to the Collector, Kandhamal to immediately enquire into the matter, ensure that the compensation payable is immediately disbursed by the State and file a report as well as the compliance affidavit before this court before the next date (December 4)”.