3 officials booked under SC/ST Act

Bathinda, April 11

The police on Wednesday booked an assistant manager, supervisor and junior engineer of Triveni Company after two sewermen were taken ill after inhaling poisonous fumes while they were cleaning manholes at Ballaram Nagar on Monday.

A case under Sections 279 of the IPC and 3/4 of the SC & ST (Prevention of Atrocity) Act-89, 3 of SC & ST (POA) Act-89 (Amendment-15) and 4 of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers & their Rehabilitation Act-13 against assistant manager G Sriniwas, supervisor Navgeet Singh and junior engineer Resham Singh at the Thermal police station on the complaint of Raju Singh, a resident of Sanjay Nagar, a sewerman.

The accused have been booked for not providing safety gear like masks and belts and pressuring both sewerman to enter into a manhole. The accused are absconding.

In his complaint, Raju has alleged that he had been working for this company for the past three years.

On Monday, he along with Satish Kumar, Deepak and Ajay, was cleaning manholes at Barnala road with suction machine, which developed a fault.

According to Raju, the accused pressured them to get into the manhole, which led to the tragedy.

Nem Chand, president of the sewer workers union, said both were forced to enter the manhole without safety gear.

Inspector Shiv Chand, SHO of the Thermal police station, said the accused would be arrested soon. — TNS