Sewerman inhales toxic gas, dies

Charanjit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 26

A sewerman, a contractual employee with the Municipal Corporation (MC), died after he inhaled poisonous gas while cleaning a manhole in the Navi Abadi area on the Fatehgarh Churian road on Tuesday afternoon.

Jageer Singh (31), a resident of Kanssi Nagar of Verka, was deployed in ward no. 7.

Inderjeet Singh, husband of ward no. 7 councillor Kajal, said, “I came to know that he had opened a manhole and fell unconscious due to poisonous gas. His co-workers took him to a nearby hospital. Later, Jageer was discharged from the hospital and went home. After sometime, he again complained of a respiratory problem. His family members took him to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital where he declared brought dead.”

Deceased’s nephew Rajwinder Singh said he was the sole breadwinner in the family. Jageer is survived by three children and his wife.

Officials of the operation and maintenance (O&M) wing of the civic body, who were supposed to be present on the spot when sewermen were entering manholes, did not have details of the incident even after 30 hours.

Anurag Mahajan, Superintending Engineer, O&M wing, did not respond to phone calls. SDO Manjit Singh said, “On Tuesday, we were in Chandigarh for some official work. I don’t have any detail about the incident.”

Violating the orders of the Supreme Court, several sewermen were forced to enter manholes by the MC in the past. As a result, many had lost their lives.

On March 27, 2014, the apex court had imposed a ban on entering manholes unless there is an emergency. The court clarified that even in the case of emergency, entering a drain or a manhole can only be permitted with written approval of a chief executive officer and with all protective gears in place. As per the court, entering sewer lines without safety gears is a crime even in emergency situations.

Advocate Vishav, who works for manual scavengers and sewermen, said, “According to the guidelines of the Supreme Court, the government should immediately release Rs10 lakh for the family members of the diseased. The court had also directed to give pension of Rs35,000 per month to legal heirs till the age of 60 years of the person, who dies while cleaning sewerage. The government should provide a job to the wife of Jageer.”

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