Worker forced by private contractor to enter manhole without safety equipment – 16th such death this year.
A manhole worker died while on duty in Vejalpur at around noon on Tuesday, after being forced by his contractor to enter a manhole. The 28 year-old, who had been working at a site in Karimabaug in the Muktampur area of Vejalpur, was rushed to the VS hospital, where he was declared dead.
Under contract with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to clean manholes, Praveen Purabia had initially refused to enter the manhole as the private contractor had not provided him with any safety equipment. He was, however, forced to enter the manhole without as much as a gas mask, and fell unconscious after inhaling poisonous gases within minutes of entering. Before losing consciousness, Purabia shouted for help, and he was rushed to the hospital by passers-by.
“Our entire family survives by cleaning manholes. We are often sent down to clean the gutters. We go as deep as 10 feet. Inside, the atmosphere alternates between hot and cold,” said Ramesh Purabia, a relative of the deceased, who had been present when the incident occurred.
Purabia is the 16th manhole worker to die this year, said Ashish Mishra, a member of the Kamdar Swasthya Suraksha Mandal. “All of them died while cleaning gutters and sewage lines, due to the unavailability of safety equipment,” he said.
“The worker was not provided with any protective gear, in clear violation of a 2006 judgment of the Gujarat high court,” Mishra said. The high court order directs that all state departments (municipal corporations, municipalities and gram panchayats), private parties and companies should not let any person enter a manhole to clean it expect when unavoidable; contractors, however, continue to go against this order.
Dr Vinod Pathak of the VS hospital said that Purabia inhaled toxic gases like ammonia and hydrogen disulphide, which affected his lungs. “The oxygen level in the patient’s blood had fallen drastically. In 99 per cent of such cases, the patients do not survive. With the oxygen level falling so low, he would have suffered brain damage,
resulting in his death,” he said.
The contract for the cleaning of the manhole had been given to a private contractor, Praveen Trivedi, and the Vejalpur police have registered an FIR against him. According to MC Patel, police inspector at the Vejalpur police station, Ramesh Purabia has given his statement against the contractor and civic body.
Additional city engineer MD Makida, meanwhile, said that the civic body does not allow anyone to enter the gutters. “We provide training to the workers. It need to be debated why such deaths have occurred, and the subject needs to be studied deeply,” he said.
The AMC has, however, proposed to pay the family of the victim Rs2 lakh as compensation. “A member of the deceased’s family will be a given a job in his place, and the contractor has been warned against sending workers into the gutters,” said IK Patel, deputy municipal commissioner of the health and solid waste management
department of the civic body.
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