Bhubaneswar: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday issued a show cause notice to the state Chief Secretary and blamed the Odisha government for the death of two sewage workers who died due to asphyxiation in Cuttack while cleaning a sewage tank on April 15, 2021.
The NHRC also sought a reply from the Chief Secretary as to why a compensation amount of Rs 10 lakh be not paid to the family of the deceased each and to state whether any compensation has been paid to the injured person who is undergoing treatment in a Cuttack medical facility.
The NHRC directed the Chief Secretary, Government of Odisha, to reply to the show cause notice within four weeks.
“It is quite apparent that during the departmental inquiry, it was found that the Junior Engineer and contractor are responsible for the death of the two sewage workers and it reflects that the incident took place due to negligence on the part of the government employees for which the state is vicariously liable as the human rights of the two deceased persons and one injured person have been violated,” the show cause notice reads.
“Accordingly, a show cause notice be issued to the Government of Odisha through its Chief Secretary as to why compensation of Rs 10 lakh be not recommended by the Commission to the State to be paid to the NoK of the deceased and to specify whether any compensation has been paid to the injured person,” it added.
It is worth mentioning here, two workers engaged in manual scavenging of a sewage tank died due to suspected asphyxiation in the CDA Sector-10 area of Cuttack on April 15, 2021. The deceased were P. Shankar of Patapur in Andhra Pradesh and Bishnu Nayak of Baramba in Cuttack district.
