Ground Report | New Delhi: Four sanitation workers died in separate incidents after allegedly inhaling toxic fumes while cleaning sewers in Lucknow and Rae Bareli, police said.
The private company contracted by the Jal Kal department of the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) failed to provide protective equipment to workers for the cleaning and maintenance of sewage treatment plants and pipelines throughout the city.
According to the reports, the sanitation workers had entered the sewer line without equipment in Sahadatganj, Lucknow, due to which this accident happened.
After the death of the cleaning workers, there is chaos in their house.
After the incident, the Mayor expressed deep sorrow and ordered immediate action against the responsible employees/officers.
Earlier, two labourers died while cleaning the sewer line on Manika Road in Rae Bareli. A government spokesperson in Lucknow said that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the death of the labourers and expressed condolences to the bereaved families.
The spokesman said that the Chief Minister directed the officers to provide all possible help.
The deceased contract sanitation workers have been identified as Pooran (37) and Karan (19), residents of the Unnao district and Talkatora area of the city, respectively.
Local residents said Pooran and Karan entered the sewer line in the Gulabnagar area of Saadatganj. Suddenly, they felt uncomfortable and fell unconscious.
Two other workers also entered the tank but also fell unconscious. When no one came out for 15 to 20 minutes, residents reported it to the local corporation and police.
"We managed to rescue one of them, but we couldn't get the others out," Mohammad Ahsan, a former corporator who was present at the scene, told TOI.
However, Police said that as soon as the information about the accident was received, administrative staff, including district judge Vaibhav Srivastava, arrived at the scene and the rescue operation was launched. Following this, both staff members were evicted.
They further added that they were rushed to the district hospital, but doctors declared both dead. Police said the process of conducting an autopsy is underway. According to the head of Nagar Kotwali, Raghavan Singh, the dead have been identified as Jogesh and Sanju Nagar.
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