Tamil Nadu: Manhole cleaning takes yet another life

Tamil Nadu: Days after a 25-year-old youth died due to asphyxiation in Chennai, another man died while cleaning a manhole in Kumbakonam district of Tamil Nadu.

The victim was identified as Sadiq Batsha, a resident of Melakkaveri. The fifty-five-year-old worked as a contract labourer. According to police reports, he was cleaning a manhole near Kumbakonam railway station when he inhaled poisonous gases and fainted. A private firm had employed a contractor to clear a block in the underground sewage system near the railway station, according to initial investigations.

Sadiq Batsha was accompanied by two others but was the first to clean the manhole. Seeing the effect of the poisonous gases on Sadiq, the other two had fled the scene, according to onlookers. Firefighters engaged in a two-hour search after which the victim's body was found. Police have sent the body to Kumbakonam Government Hospital for an autopsy.

A case has been registered against the contractor for failing to provide safety gears to the workers. Zariya, the victim's mother has filed charges against the contractor. A probe has also been initiated to look into the case.

In a similar incident this week, a victim identified as Arun Kumar had gone to clean a septic tank in a commercial mall in Chennai. He died of asphyxiation while helping his brother come out of the tank. Arun had gone to manually clean a septic tank in Express Avenue mall in the early hours of Tuesday. Being the first to inhale the toxic gases, he too, succumbed to death.

Manual Scavenging has been banned in India since 1993 but continues to be a menace.