Delhi government to give Rs 10 lakh to kin of man dying in sewer

Delhi Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam on Monday said his government will provide a financial help of Rs 10 lakh to the family of a man who died while cleaning a sewer pit in west Delhi on Friday.

"The Delhi government condoles the death of Anil and is ready to offer financial help of Rs 10 lakh to his family," Gautam told IANS over telephone, adding that the financial aid could get delayed by a day or two due to a hitch over who are the legal heirs of the victim.

"The woman said to be Anil's wife is not legally his wife. The lady has some other man's name as her husband in her Aadhar card. Even the children are not his. I have asked the SHO (Station House Officer) of the area to investigate the matter, so that only legal heirs get the financial aid," Gautam said.

Anil, 20, died while cleaning a Delhi Jal Board (DJB) sewer pit in west Delhi's Dabri on Friday evening. The incident comes less than a week after the death of five workers inside a sewage pipe of DLF Capital Greens in Moti Nagar.

Anil was not wearing any safety gear and was handed over an old rope by the person who had called him to go inside the sewer.

On this, Gautam said that the Delhi government has "zero tolerance" against private entities who engage in manual scavenging and that the government is working on forming a regulatory committee to eliminate this "toxic" practice.

The Delhi government, he said, has decided to go for mechanization of sewer cleanup work to prevent such cases. "Under the mechanism, no cleaning staff will have to get inside a sewer. 200 machines will be provided soon to avoid such incidents," he said.

--IANS

sd/nir