HYDERABAD: The High Court of Telangana on Wednesday has converted the News report published in The New Indian Express Hyderabad Edition on November 29, 2021, with the headline 'Two choke to death while cleaning septic tank' into suo motu PIL.
The news report relating to the death of two sanitation workers, who while cleaning a septic tank in an apartment in Kondapur.
Justice Ujjwal Bhuyan, Judge of High Court for the State of Telangana Hyderabad forwarded a note dated November 29, 2021 while enclosing a news report published in The New Indian Express, expressing deep anguish on the State Administration in permitting manual scavenging in the state despite the fact that the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 completely prohibits manual scavenging.
Apart from the above, the Supreme Court in 2014 held that the State should pay compensation of Rs. 10 lakhs to the dependent of the person who dies while doing sewerage work since 1993 irrespective of the place of work, and further the State should conduct a survey across the state and identify as to how many persons have died while performing scavenging work.