THE TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI *

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2017 TIMES CITY 7

2 die at Rampal ashram sewer Intolerance shows return

Bhakts Were
If the state really cared, there to age of barbarism: Court
Asphyxiated TIMES NEWS NETWORK
In courts view, the
an intention to kill
him. Rajus son Nilesh also got

Cleaning It
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
would be no sewer deaths here lost these 10 workers in the not use machines to clean sew- which I mean we have the evi-
New Delhi: A Delhi court has
said that the need of the hour
is to curb the growing intole-
rance among people who va-
lue their views over someone
need of the hour
is to curb rising
intolerance and to
injured in the incident which
took place in south Delhis
Tughlakabad.
The court also said that
Neighbours are considered
Avijit.Ghosh award a suitable and
New Delhi: Two devotees of ja- @timesgroup.com past month in Delhi. age in bylanes. dence, postmortem report, etc. A elses life. Observing that such more precious than relatives
majority hasnt got the compen- instances reflected a return to adequate punishment because in the event of

iled spiritual leader Rampal
were killed while cleaning a se-
wer at Rampals ashram in ou-
ter Delhis Mundka area. Police
said a few others were injured
when they tried to pull the men
out of the sewer tank. A case of
causing death due to negligen-
ce has been registered.
DCP (outer) Pankaj Singh
said the incident occurred aro-
und 3pm when the devotees,
Amarjeet (30) and Makhan Lal
(27), climbed into the tank but
started to choke on toxic gas.
Another devotee keeping a
watch on them told police the
youths stopped responding
when he called out to them. He
decided to descend into the se-
wer linked to the septic tank to
S
ocial activist Bezwada
Wilson and his organisa-
tion, Safai Karamchari
Andolan (SKA), have been
fighting for the rights of sani-
tation workers and the eradi-
cation of manual scavenging
for over two decades. The Mag-
saysay Award winner talks
to TOI on why the workers die
in sewers across India, espe-
cially Delhi
In the recent weeks Delhi
has seen a spate of deaths in
the sewers. Why?
After each such incident in the
past two years, I have written
letters to the lieutenant gover-
nor, the chief minister, Delhi
Jal Board, National Human
Full of lethal gas, the sew- The SC ruled in 2014 that ev-
ers are like death traps. As eryone who has died inside a
long as we dont mechanise sewer must receive Rs 10 lakh
the sewage system, such as compensation. How easy
deaths will not stop. Some or difficult is it to get that
days back Delhi lieutenant amount?
governor Anil Baijal issued In some places, we had to stage a
directives for 100% mecha- dharna with the body to get the
nisation of cleaning of sew- amount. Sometimes the kin get
There is no comprehensive
time-bound action plan for the
whole of Delhi division-wise. The
irony is, today it is possible to
enter the human heart using
technology but we cannot use
machines to clean sewage
BEZWADA WILSON | Activist
sation. Only two states, Punjab
and Tamil Nadu, have been
prompt. Other states are not
even moving in that direction.
Under the Swachh Bharat
scheme, lots of toilets have
been built all over India.
Will that help overcome the
problem?
It is actually adding to the
problem. Many such toilets
are not connected to the sew-
age system. They have septic
tanks. People die in these
tanks as well. We will add 21
crore new toilets by 2019. Un-
less these septic tanks are inte-
grated with a fully mecha-
nised sewage line, more people
will die.
the age of barbarism, the co-
urt sentenced four men to
three years of rigorous impri-
sonment for grievously as-
saulting their neighbours, a
man and his son in 2007 over
an alleged political rivalry.
The case depicts a glaring
example of rising intolerance
among the natives of this city
who, even on trivial issues in-
volving their alleged political
faiths, do not even hesitate in
attacking their own neighbo-
urs with such fury that even if
the other side loses life, that
would hardly matter to them,
said additional sessions judge
any emergency, it is the neigh-
Lokesh Kumar Sharma.
According to the complaint,
the convicts were allegedly wor-
kers of a politician back then.
The four convicts Vijay Ku-
mar, Rishi Pal, a government
servant, Ashok and Satbir
were sentenced to jail term for
offences under Sections 308 (at-
tempt to commit culpable homi-
cide), 325 (causing grave injuri-
es) and 323 (voluntarily causing
hurt) of the IPC.
The prosecution claimed
that on August 4, 2007, the four
men grievously injured Raju,
who was their neighbour, with
bours upon whom a person co-
uld fall back for assistance and
not on the distant relatives.
However, with rise of materia-
listic society, somehow, we are
deviating from our
ancient culture, ethics
and moralities and are retur-
ning to the age of barbarism
as was prevalent in the primi-
tive society.
In courts view, the need of
the hour is to curb such rising
intolerance and to award a
suitable and adequate pu-
nishment corresponding to
the offence.

check but soon climbed out ga-
sping for air and fell unconscio-
us. The police and the fire de-
partment were informed.
New panel to
Rights Commission. I have re-
ceipts of every letter. Whenev- ers and drains. only Rs 2-3 lakh. In some places, The SC prohibits anyone
er a case has gone unreported, Heres the problem: Delhi has the chief minister will come and from entering the sewer

probe sexual
A disaster management te- we have brought it to their no- 7,000km of sewage pipelines. It make an announcement. Thats lines without proper protec-
am and additional Delhi Fire tice. But there is no action or has 17 sewage treatment plants. strange because the SC has al- tion gear. Now there are ads
Service personnel rushed to prosecution in such cases. Da- Many of them dont work to ready made it mandatory for the in newspapers too. Yet

the spot. The two cleaners were
pulled into the open by fire ser-
vice personnel by 5pm. Howe-
ver, they died by the time they
reached hospital.
Makhan, a resident of Ne-
pal, worked as a cleaner at the
ashram for 15 years. Other de-
votees told the police he and his
sons stayed at the ashram vo-
luntarily and helped with secu-
rity. Amarjeet lived in a nearby
village. Police said the mana-
ger was being questioned abo-
ta collated by SKA shows that
at least 84 such workers have
died in Delhi since 1987. In 2013,
Parliament passed the Prohib-
ition of Employment as
Manual Scavengers and their
Rehabilitation Act. In 2014, the
Supreme Court clearly told the
central and the state govern-
ments to undertake a survey to
identify everyone who works
in the sewers. No such step has
been taken. If the state had re-
ally cared, we wouldnt have
high capacity. We produce over
4,300 million litre per day (mld)
of sewage in Delhi and we are
able to treat 1,400 mld. There is
talk of vigilance committees be-
ing formed in Delhi. But there is
no comprehensive time-bound
action plan for the whole of Del-
hi division-wise. No machines.
No roadmaps. Even the plants
are not fully mechanised. The
irony is, today it is possible to en-
ter the human heart using state-
of-the-art technology but we can-
state to pay the amount. The vic-
tims family must furnish the
postmortem report, an FIR copy,
paper clippings. There should be
a proper legal heir. It becomes a
complicated process. It is not
easy to procure these things, es-
pecially in the older cases since
the SC said that every such
death since 1993, must be com-
pensated. Safai Karamchari An-
dolan has collected the data of
1,472 such people but we have
documented 752 such deaths. By
workers go into these death
ditches without adequate
kit. Why?
Most of those who enter these
pits are temporary employees.
Today even a permanent em-
ployee doesnt have the protec-
tion of unions. If an officer
asks him to enter, he has no op-
tion but to go in. If an employ-
ee, particularly a contract la-
bourer refuses, he is likely to
be told, dont come back tomor-
row. What does he do?
abuse in JNU
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University
(JNU) in its executive council meeting on
Monday decided to form an internal comp-
laints committee (ICC) for sexual harass-
ment cases that would replace its much ce-
lebrated Gender Sensitisation Committee
Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH).
After the decision, the university offici-

Ensure sewer law put in place: HC

ut why the men were not provi-
ded any safety equipment to en-
ter the manhole to clear the
plastic blocking the drain. Le-
gal action is also likely to be ta-
ken against a mall.
Police said the two men we-
re, in all probability, exposed to
toxic gases and asphyxiated.
Makhan had entered the drain
first and did not respond when
his father called out to him a
few minutes later. The mana-
ger then instructed Amarjeet
to follow Makhan down the
manhole. The bodies of Amar-
jeet and Makhan will be han-
ded over to their families after
an autopsy.
Police officers say the ash-
ram is managed by devotees
since the arrest of Rampal.
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Mon-
day asked for a time-bound implementa-
tion of the procedure for cleaning sewers
and septic tanks so that law banning manu-
al scavenging could be properly enforced.
A bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat
and Sunil Gaur gave the direction after the
Delhi government informed that the lieu-
tenant governor had recently set up a com-
mittee to examine various measures for
the implementation of The Prohibition of
Employment of Manual Scavenger and
their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.
HC asked the three corporations, Delhi
Jal Board, Public Works Department, Del-
hi Cantonment Board, New Delhi Munici-
pal Council and the divisional railway ma-
nager of northern railway to implement
the procedure and to give a time frame wit-
hin which it would be accomplished.
TIMELY ACTION MUST
You need to constitute rules and met-
hodology, the bench said and listed the
matter for September 27.
Meanwhile, in a report the Delhi go-
vernment said the committee would chalk
out a road map to achieve 100% mechanisa-
tion along with estimated time frame. Its
mandate would be to prepare standard
operating practices (SOPs) for cleaning se-
wer lines, septic tanks and covered drains
having sewer like character. The SOPs pre-
pared will take into account the various
provisions of the Act and rules dealing
with the safety, health and life insurance of
the workers.
The report said that SOPs should be
implemented by all the agencies and if the
work was executed through contract, it
should also be applicable to all the contrac-
tors. The committee, which was formed on
September 5, has to submit its report to the
LG within a period of two weeks, it said.
HC also asked amicus curiae Sanjay Pod-
dar and petitioner advocate Ashok Agarwal
to inform about the drawbacks of the model
rules framed by the Centre on the issue.
als seized all the documents from GSCASH
office, which led to unrest on the campus.
The students claimed that many of these
documents were contentious and contai-
ned information of ongoing sexual harass-
ment investigation cases in JNU.
Opposing the decision and calling it a
part of the dictatorial attitude of the VC,
JNUSU president Geeta Kumari said that
the administration was trampling upon all
norms, and endangering justice in critical
cases of gender violations.
However, JNU registrar Pramod Ku-
mar said that the files were taken over by
the ICC who will now investigate all the
matters which were under GSCASH.
The elections for the student representa-
tion of GSCASH, due next week, would
most likely be canceled but as we have not
yet received any notification, nothing can
be said, Ishita Manna, member of the
JNUs election committee claimed.