SC panel asks UT Admn to file reply by November 23

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 17

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has asked the UT Administration to submit a reply by November 23 on the application of the Chandigarh Dalits’ Welfare Association, seeking ‘adequate’ compensation for families of the three sewermen who died on duty in May this year.

Commission Chairman Raj Kumar Verka today met association members at New Delhi. The association had demanded adequate compensation for families of the sewermen. The civic body has paid Rs 2 lakh each as compensation to the victims’ families. However, the association had raised the issue of enhancing the compensation to Rs 10 lakh, citing a judgment passed by the Supreme Court.

The UT Administration had conducted a magisterial probe into the death of the sewermen. The report had held the contractor and the Municipal Corporation field staff responsible for their death. They died on May 30 after inhaling some toxic gas while cleaning a sewer line in the Industrial Area, Phase II.

The report stated that safety norms were not followed while carrying out the cleaning work. The report had also recommended safety norms to be followed in future.

The Municipal Corporation had blacklisted the firm, M/s Deol Engineering Works, which had carried out the cleaning work. The civic body had also suspended an MC employee, Sukh Raj, who was posted in the Public Health Department, as the firm was owned by his wife.