Delhi government compensates kin of dead sewer workers

On the intervention of the NHRC, the Delhi government has paid a compensation of Rs.2 lakh each to the families of two people who died cleaning sewers in the capital.

According to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the city government compensated the next of kin of Shankar, 40, and Manoj, 19, who died while cleaning a sewer in Rohini Sector 3 in June 2012. Both had been hired by a private contractor.

"We had taken suo motu cognizance of the incident and issued notice to the chief secretary of Delhi and the chairman of the Delhi Development Authority asking for reports," the NHRC statement said.

Earlier, the commission rejected the DDA's contention that the labourers were hired by a private contractor and therefore the liability to pay compensation did not rest with it.

The NHRC argued that the DDA failed in its duty of supervision and hence could not escape the liability.

During the inquiry, the NHRC also found that the families had been paid Rs.1.5 lakh each as compensation by the contractor - a private hotel owner who had made an unauthorised sewer and hired the duo to clean it without taking precautionary measures.

As a result, both of them succumbed to poisonous gases inside the sewer, it said.