The Allahabad High Court in Re Ensuring the Security of Life and Safety of Health of the workmen and employees engaged v. The Chief Secretary, Government of U.P. Lucknow and others took suo moto cognizance of the pathetic conditions of human scavengers cleaning deep sewerage holes and pits without any protective gear as evident from a newspaper report published on 24th May,2022. Notices were directed to be sent to various State Authorities in this regard.
Court directed Senior Advocate Anoop Trivedi who is representing the Prayagraj Nagar Nigam in the case, to seek instruction as to what steps shall be taken in this grave situation, so that the lives of the persons, who are involved in the process of cleaning drains, are not put at risk. Court also asked him to explain as to why the machines have not been put into use for drain cleaning.
The Court observed that the kind of pictures recieved from Nigar Nigam displays a situation that cannot be expected and accepted in the 21st century. It was directed to the learned counsels appearing on behalf of the State and Nagar Nigam to submit a roadmap to declog the drains before the monsoon hits while keeping in mind safety of the labourers. Nagar nigam is also to explain as to why the machines are not being used for cleaning of the drains wherever possible, as from number of photographs, it is evident that the open drains are located near main roads or open spaces, where machines can easily be used. In some of the photographs, the workers are in about chest-deep water, loaded with filth in a drain, without using any protective gear.
The case was registered on basis of a news item, which was published in the newspapers on May 24, 2022. Court said that from the article, it was evident that without any protective gears, open drains were being cleaned up by the persons deployed either by the Nagar Nigam or through contractors.