Delhi PWD sacks engineer over pictures of workers cleaning drains gearless, deletes X post
New Delhi, Jun 3 (PTI): A Delhi Public Works Department official was suspended Tuesday after the civic body's post on X showing workers desilting drains without safety gear was met with backlash online.
However, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta maintained her government was following all the court-mandated guidelines for desilting.
Earlier in the day, the PWD posted four pictures on X depicting half-naked workers engaged in the cleaning of drains.
The post was later deleted after several X users criticised the government over the apparent apathy towards the workers' safety.
At a press conference, when she was asked about the post, Gupta said not every drain can be cleaned with machines.
"Every drain has its own situation. At every drain, machines might not be able to work. It might be possible that there was a drain where the machines were not able to work. The government's target is to completely desilt all the drains. The work is being carried out keeping court guidelines in mind," she said.
A senior official from PWD said a junior engineer has been suspended since the workers were not operating in safety gear.
"The work that was being carried out was regarding desilting of a stormwater drain and not a sewer line, hence, it can not be called manual scavenging work. But still, as the workers were seen not operating in complete safety gear, the junior engineer concerned for the work has been suspended for lack of supervision, and other officials have been warned," the official said.
More than 400 people died while cleaning septic tanks and sewers in India between 2018 and 2023, according to data shared with the Parliament in 2023.
According to the data, 76 deaths occurred in 2018, 133 in 2019, 35 in 2020, 66 in 2021, 84 in 2022 and 49 in 2023.
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Double-decker electric bus gutted in fire at Kurla BEST depot
Mumbai (PTI): An empty double-decker electric bus was gutted in a fire during servicing at a BEST depot in Mumbai's Kurla area on Sunday, officials said, adding that nobody was injured.
The blaze broke out inside the Kurla BEST bus depot near Kanakia Building at 4.14 pm, according to preliminary information from the Mumbai Fire Brigade.
The parked bus was unoccupied at the time of the incident.
Fire brigade personnel rushed to the spot and brought the blaze under control. The exact cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained, they said.
No injuries were reported in the incident, officials added.
The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking has hired 50 electric double-decker buses from Switch Mobility in its fleet of around 2,700 buses.
