Faridabad sewer deaths: Cong demands govt job, compensation to families

Senior Congress leader Kumari Selja on Thursday demanded government jobs and financial aid to the families of the four workers who died of suffocation after inhaling toxic gases while cleaning a sewer tank of a Faridabad private hospital.

This is not the first time such incidents have happened in the state, the former Union minister said, adding that the process of cleaning sewers and septic tanks should be completely mechanised.

Those killed in the incident were from poor families, and the state should give government jobs to a next of kin on humanitarian grounds and immediately provide an assistance of Rs 50 lakh to each of the families, Selja said.

''The state government should make it mandatory to completely mechanise the process of cleaning sewers and septic tanks so that people's lives could be saved,'' she said.

The Congress leader alleged that often no safety or proper gear is provided to those who enter sewers and septic tanks, putting their lives at risk.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a notice to the Haryana government in connection with the deaths of the four sanitation workers.

The panel said it took suo motu cognisance of a media report about the incident that took place on Wednesday.

In April, four people died after inhaling some poisonous gases inside a tank of a sewerage treatment plant at a village in Hisar district.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)