Five sanitation workers died after inhaling toxic fumes while cleaning a sewer in Delhi

Five sanitation workers died after inhaling toxic fumes while cleaning a sewer near DLF flats in Moti Nagar area in Delhi. The incident took place on Sunday afternoon when all the five people aged between 22 and 30 years went to clean the sewer.

Five persons who had gone inside sewer were: 

• Vishal 
• Raja
• Pankaj
• Umesh
• Sarfaraz

While two of them died on the spot, the other three breathed their last in Delhi's Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital.

"This is not the first incident such incident has taken place in the city. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government is clearly responsible for this incident. They had promised that technologies will be used for the cleaning of sewer, but even after so many deaths, same old methods are being used. They are playing with the lives of the innocents'," said Bharat Bhushan Madan, Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Karol Bagh district president.

Sunita Mishra, Councillor of ward 99, where the incident took place, also condemned the incident and demanded a compensation of Rs 50 lakh each for the families of the deceased.

Read: Congress Party Calls For 'Bharat Bandh' Against Fuel Price Hike, 11 Opposition Parties Back Protest To Corner Modi Government

Earlier this year, three labourers were asphyxiated after inhaling poisonous gases while cleaning a sewer at Gurugram's Khandsa area. The labourers had gone to clean the sewage of JNJ Electronics Ltd.when the incident took place. This company deals with the painting of two-wheelers. The deceased have been identified as Rinku, Rajkumar and Ninna. The three labourers got into the sewage only to help Binish who was in trouble.

 In another tragic incident, three labourers lost their lives during sewer cleaning in Uttar Pradesh's Noida. The incident took place in Sector 110. 

A local present at the accident site said, "The incident occurred at around 4-5 p.m. in the evening, but no one from the police, who came at the site, nor the city magistrate, did anything. The condition here is so worse."

After multiple deaths in the capital, in August, authorities in Delhi decided to fully mechanise cleaning sewers and penalise agencies continuing manual cleaning and giving punishment up to life imprisonment.

(With inputs from ANI)