Manual scavenging: HC pulls up Guj govt over non-payment of compensation to 16 dead workers' kin
Ahmedabad, Jan 3: The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday pulled up the state government over the non-payment of compensation to the kin of 16 sanitation workers who died during manual scavenging between 1993 and 2014 and directed it to explain the reason in an affidavit.
The court of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha P Mayee also wanted to know from the state what steps it has taken to adopt the 2013 anti-manual scavenging law, and whether the government was in a position to do away with the practice or still taking the help of sanitation workers for it.
The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Ahmedabad-based NGO Manav Garima, seeking the implementation of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.
When the petitioner's lawyer informed the court that the family members of 16 deceased manual scavengers were yet to be paid the compensation as per the Supreme Court guidelines, the court pulled up the government and said the latter could not go on making payments to some and leaving out the others.
It directed the principal secretary of the urban development and urban housing department to file his personal affidavit to bring on record the reasons for non-payment of compensation to the families of the 16 workers whose names were included in the list of deceased submitted by the petitioner.
The court also took note of another recent incident of manual scavenging in Bhavnagar city where a sanitation worker of the civic body died of asphyxiation while another suffered serious injuries after entering a sewage tank on the campus of the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI) on November 10, 2023.
It permitted the petitioner to implead the civic body as a respondent with a direction for it to file an affidavit to bring on record details concerning the incident. The court also directed the principal secretary to submit a report regarding the same.
"This is not hide and seek, let us be clear about this. If the list (of victims) was there ..you have to give at least this much explanation as to why you have not paid them, reason has to be there," the Chief Justice observed.
"What steps have you taken to adopt the zero manual scavenging policy ...have you got the requisite machines, are you in a position to do away with manual scavenging, or are you still taking help of these people ..we want a clear answer," she asked.
In a civil application filed in April last year in connection with a 2016 PIL, the petitioner claimed that the government had failed to implement the provisions of the 2013 law that prohibits manual scavenging and sought its direction for its proper implementation.
The high court had in 2016 directed the government to pay Rs 10 lakh compensation to the families of each of the deceased manhole workers on the PIL by the NGO. The Supreme Court had in its order in October 2023 raised the compensation amount to Rs 30 lakh in case of deaths and disabilities due to manual scavenging.
When the NGO moved the plea in April 2023, families of 26 out of 152 manhole workers who died between 1993 and 2014, and 16 workers who died after the filing of the main petition in 2016, were not paid compensation by the government, it claimed.
In the meanwhile, the government paid compensation to some but left out 16 which was brought to the notice of the court on Wednesday.
Despite section 7 of the 2013 Act prohibiting local authorities or their agencies to engage people for hazardous cleaning of sewer in underground drainage lines or septic tanks, they have continued to do so, causing several deaths, the petitioner said.
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Indian national sentenced to 35 years in prison for sexual exploitation of minors, child pornography
New York (PTI): A 31-year-old Indian national has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for sexually exploiting several children through a social media app where he often posed as a teenage boy to gain their trust and threatened and extorted them with child pornography when they refused his requests.
Sai Kumar Kurremula, 31, an Indian national living in Edmond, Oklahoma on an immigrant visa, has been sentenced to serve 420 months in federal prison for the sexual exploitation of three children and transportation of child pornography, US Attorney Robert Troester said in a statement.
At the sentencing hearing last week, US District Judge Charles Goodwin sentenced Kurremula to serve 420 months in federal prison, followed by a lifetime term of supervised release.
In announcing his sentence, Goodwin noted that these offences are among those that society considers the most serious because they involve such vulnerable victims. Goodwin further highlighted that Kurremula inflicted trauma on his victims that will echo throughout their lives and their families’ lives, and his lengthy sentence of imprisonment reflects that trauma.
In April last year, Kurremula was charged with sexual exploitation of children and transportation of child pornography. According to an affidavit filed in support of a criminal complaint, in October 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began investigating an account on a social media messaging app involving a user who was sexually exploiting minor girls.
The Internet Protocol address used to create the account led federal authorities to Kurremula. Public documents and evidence at the sentencing hearing allege Kurremula had sexually exploited at least 19 minors through the social media messaging app, often posing as a 13-15-year-old boy to gain the trust of his victims. When the victims refused his requests, Kurremula would manipulate, threaten, and extort his victims to produce even more child pornography.
Kurremula had pleaded guilty and admitted to sexually exploiting three minor victims and knowingly transporting images of child pornography. Specifically, Kurremula admitted that to ensure the minor victims complied, he threatened one minor that he would drive to her house and show her parents sexually explicit images of her; threatened another victim that he would come to her home and shoot her family; and threatened a third young individual that he would publicly post sexually explicit images and videos of her.
“The appalling exploitation, manipulation, and coercion of multiple children by this defendant justly warranted the 35-year sentence imposed by the Court,” Troester said. “This case serves as a clear warning to others that the strongest of penalties await those who exploit and victimize our children.” FBI Oklahoma City Special Agent in Charge Doug Goodwater said Kurremula manipulated children into sending him explicit images for his perverse gratification. “These disgusting actions robbed the victims of their innocence and caused unthinkable harm,” Goodwater said.
