Rehabilitate manual scavengers in Civil Defence: Kejriwal

New Delhi: Taking a serious view of the recent deaths of manual scavengers in the city, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday directed the officials to identify the persons engaged in manual scavenging and rehabilitate them in Civil Defence corps.

Chairing the first meeting of the State monitoring committee on prohibition of manual scavenging, Kejriwal warned that action will be taken against concerned authorities for reporting zero number of manual scavengers in their jurisdiction if any death occurred during cleaning of septic tank or sever, said a government statement. 

"It was decided in the meeting that if survey report of a district indicates that there is no manual scavenger in the area, then in case of any death during manual cleaning of septic tank or sewer there, the concerned district magistrate will be held responsible," the statement said. 

The Chief Minister directed the district magistrates to induct the manual scavengers in the Civil Defence, it said. 

He also asked for special relaxation on case to case basis if identified manual scavengers lack educational eligibility. 

The CM also asked them to give skill training to persons identified as manual scavengers. 

Three districts- Shahdara, North East and East Delhi- have reported total 45 manual scavengers in their jurisdictional area. 

Some districts reported no manual scavengers in their survey, but they were directed to redo it seriously, the statement said. 

Secretary of the monitoring committee was asked to submit a draft scheme on rehabilitation of the manual scavengers and formulate rules for it. 

The concerned additional district magistrates have been directed to use their authority to provide relief and justice to the affected families in the recent deaths of six manual scavengers in the city and impose penalties on those responsible for such incidents. 

The committee also sought a report on the deaths of manual scavengers in last five years from the concerned department. 

Apart from the Chief Minister, the meeting was also attended by Social Welfare minister Rajendra Pal Gautam.