Sanitation workers’ kin to get ₹30 lakh ex-gratia in GB Nagar

NOIDA: The government authorities and departments in Gautam Budh Nagar district will now have to pay ₹30 lakh as compensation to the families of those sanitation workers who lose their lives while cleaning sewers, an official directive said on Friday. They were previously given ₹10 lakh as ex-gratia.

The government departments in urban areas, and district panchayati raj officer in rural areas, have been directed to abide by the guidelines as issued by the Gautam Budh Nagar’s district social welfare officer.

The move has been welcomed by a section of sanitation workers, however, urging that the government must ponder completely ending the manual cleaning of sewers.

“The government bodies in urban areas including industrial development authorities such as Noida authority, Greater Noida Industrial Development authority, among others and district panchayat raj officer in rural areas, have been directed to disburse compensation of ₹30,00,000 instead of ₹10,00,000 for the families of victims who lose their lives while engaged in sewer cleaning,” said district social welfare officer (Gautam Budh Nagar) Neelam Singh Chauhan, adding: “A high court order has been issued in this regard.”

There is a provision to provide compensation to the sanitation workers who lose their lives while cleaning the manholes, sewers, under the Centres’ Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.

Besides raising the compensation amount, several other instructions include the government bodies, departments and authorities to ensure that “any company/agency or any private company that has been working to get sanitation-related works done, must ensure that sanitation workers or any other labourer made to clean the manholes/sewers carry out the exercise while being fully equipped with necessary toolkit”, the official said.

“Besides, they have to mandatorily ensure the availability of machinery for carrying out the exercise,” Chauhan added.

The official informed that non-compliance of the issued orders will be viewed as a violation of the Manual Scavengers Act, and a stringent action will be initiated against the violators.

In May, two sanitation workers had died after allegedly inhaling “poisonous gas” inside a sewage shaft they had entered for cleaning, at a residential accommodation in Sector 26, Noida. The deceased, identified as Tapan Mandal and Nooni Mandal, hailed from West Bengal, lived in a slum in Sector 9.

There are around 6,000 sanitation workers deployed in Noida authority and around 2,100 in Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority, as per officials.

Sanitation workers said that it is praiseworthy that the compensation is being increased, however, the government must consider complete elimination of manual cleaning of sewers and it should be carried out through technical means only.

“Besides, for those losing their lives in the line of their duties of cleaning sewers, etc, their children must also be given employment to help the family after the loss of sole breadwinner in the family”, said Ranbeer Janghara, district president of the Sanyukt Morcha Safai Karamchari, a sanitation workers’ union in Gautam Budh Nagar.