Mumbai: Three youth choke to death while cleaning septic tank

Three of eight manual scavengers died on Friday, at around 12.45am, in Thane. One of them is in a critical condition and is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in the city. Until the story was brought to the media's attention, the city police were in the process of arresting the two contractors, who had hired the youth.

On Thursday afternoon, eight youth, all in their twenties and from Bhayander's Ambedkarnagar, left their respective homes to manually clean septic tanks in a Thane society. They were hired by private contractors — Vaibhav Patil and Jitendra Khare — who took up contracts of cleaning septic tanks in housing societies.

At around 5pm, the workers reached Pride Presidency Luxuria CHS (co-operative housing society) at Dhokalinaka, Thane. "They had to clean four septic tanks, which were inside the sewerage treatment plant located on the society's ground floor," Rajendra Sodha, a friend of the youth, said. They cleaned three tanks and took a dinner break at around 9pm.

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After dinner, at around 11.30pm Amit Pivhal (22), Ajay Pivhal (21), Aman Bhadad (21), and Ajay Bumbak (24) entered the fourth septic tank. As Amit entered the tank with the help of a rope, the toxic fumes hit him and he fell. Aman, who was following him, tried to save him but got affected by the fumes; even Ajay Bumbak and Ajay Pivhal were severely affected by the toxicity and all of them fell. "The contractor should have left the tank open for some time for the gas to pass, before the workers entered, but he did not take that course and the workers died," Sodha said.

The harrowed workers, who were outside the tank, called the police. The cops alerted the Thane Municipal Corporation's (TMC) fire brigade, which reached the spot at around 12.25am on Friday. The four workers were taken to Metro hospital at Manpada, Ghodbunder road. Except for Ajay Pivhal, three of the rescued workers died. According to sources, Ajay's condition is stable.

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The Kapurbawdi Police registered an FIR against the two contractors under sections 304 (culpable homicide) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC. "We will arrest the contractors and also inquire about the involvement of housing society members. If found guilty, we will arrest them too," said A V Deshmukh, senior police inspector, Kapurbawdi Police Station.

• In November 2018, five men including two Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation's (KDMC) fire brigade officials drowned in a well. The 70-year-old well had poisonous gasses as chemical sewage had seeped into it from a neighbouring chemical factory. Unaware of the toxic gasses, well owner Gunwantgiri Goswami hired one Kamlesh Yadav (22), to clean it. As Yadav stepped into the well he was hit by toxic fumes and he fell. Gunwantgiri's son Rahul jumped to save him but he too was affected by the toxicity. Gunwantgiri too jumped in and met the same fate. When KDMC fire brigade officials, who had come to rescue the trio, went inside the well without adequate safety gear, they too died due to the poisonous gasses.