An inquiry has been ordered into the deaths of two sanitation workers that took place while they were cleaning a 25-feet-deep sewer line without any safety gear in Nuh on Tuesday, officials said.
The inquiry was ordered by Nuh deputy commissioner Akhil Pilani on Friday, and Firozpur Jhirka subdivisional magistrate Laxmi Narayan will be heading the probe, district administration officials said.
Officials added that the reports will be submitted within a week.
Rajender Kumar alias Kalva, 27 and Abdul Kalam, 30 had suffocated to death after entering the sewer at the Ambedkar chowk between 9.20pm and 9.30pm on Tuesday.
A third worker, Mohammad Arbaz alias Bhura, 28, who went in the sewer to pull the duo out, was critical and undergoing treatment at government hospital.
An FIR against public health engineering department sub-divisional officer, junior engineer and a contractor was registered under sections 106 (causing death by negligence) and 3(5) (common intention) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at City Firozpur Jhirka police station on Wednesday.
“A four-member team of the Haryana Scheduled Castes Commission also visited the spot to carry out their inquiry on the deaths. They collected details of the incident,” Narayan said.
Arpit Jain, Nuh police superintendent, felicitated a resident, Mohammad Farrukh on Tuesday who went in the sewer and managed to pull out Arbaz,” he said.
Meanwhile, PHED suspended its junior engineer Mahboob Khan on Thursday who was the in-charge of the sewer line infrastructure of the area where the incident took place. Despite multiple attempts by HT for a comment, Khan refused to respond.
A senior PHED engineer, on condition of anonymity, said that there were lapses from the side of the JE and the contractor who was hired for the work.
“There was no coordination between them. A sewer cleaning work was going on at night and it was not communicated by the contractor to the department. Senior officials including the department’s executive engineer posted in Nuh had no information about any such work being carried out,” he said.
Meanwhile, another PHED official said that all manual sewer cleaning work in Nuh has been put at abeyance till further orders. “Cleaning will be carried out by machines now,” he said.
He said that repeatedly instruction has been issued to the contractors and the sanitation workers for using safety gears. “The contractor ignored the directions and made the sanitation workers enter without safety measures,” he said.
PHED officials said a compensation of ₹30 lakh each to both the family of the deceased workers will be given according to the provisions of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act.
Inspector Kuldeep Singh, station house officer of City Firozpur Jhirka police station, said that the contractor, Mohammad Taufique, who was carrying out the sewer cleaning work at night without departmental clearance is absconding.
“Raids have been carried out at several locations to nab him. Action against the PHED subdivisional officer and the junior engineer will be taken once the administrative inquiry is completed,” he added.