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News Topical, Digital Desk : The Calcutta High Court has ordered compensation of 30 lakh rupees each to the families of four laborers who died of suffocation while cleaning an underground drain in Kolkata five years ago. A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Sujay Pal and Justice Chaitali Chattopadhyay Das also ordered compensation of 5 lakh rupees each to those injured in the incident.
The City and Urban Development Department and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation have been ordered to pay compensation within two to three months. The High Court also directed the Kolkata Police Commissioner to conduct an investigation under his supervision to identify the culprits. The Police Commissioner must submit the investigation report to the High Court Registrar General within four weeks.
The division bench also directed the state government to constitute a committee within a month to implement several orders of the Supreme Court for the safety of sanitation workers.
Cleaning of manholes and underground drains was banned in 1993.
Manual scavenging, the practice of cleaning manholes and underground drains by lowering people down, was banned in 1993. The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act was enacted in 2013.
On February 25, 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, four workers, including a minor, died of suffocation while cleaning a drain in the Kundaghat area of South Kolkata as part of the Kolkata Environmental Improvement Investment Program, a project under the Municipal and Urban Development Department. Two other workers fell seriously ill. The human rights organization APDR filed a public interest litigation in the Calcutta High Court seeking redressal of such incidents.
Read More: Calcutta High Court's big decision, families of the deceased will get Rs 30 lakh compensation
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