• Source:JND
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The Supreme Court of India on Thursday reprimanded the civic agencies of Delhi over persistent manual scavenging without proper safety gear and asked them to ‘wake up from their slumber’.  
 
Imposing Rs 5 lakh on the Public Works Department (PWD) for employing labourers without safety gear in desilting of drains outside the court complex, the SC sent a terse reminder to all the agencies to prevent death due to manual scavenging.

If Employee Dies, FIR Will Be Filed Against Officials: SC

After a report by amicus curiae K Parameshwar, Justice Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria observed that if any worker dies due to manual scavenging,  FIRs would be registered against the responsible officials.
 
 
amicus curiae K Parameshwar reported that PWD had engaged labourers outside Supreme Court’s Gate F for stormwater drain desilting without protective gear, although SC is actively monitoring manual scavenging deaths across the nation. Along with this, Parameshwar also cited other violations in Delhi.

'Wake Up From Slumber': SC To PWD Officials

“We make it explicitly clear that in the event of any untoward incident, this court would direct registration of FIR against the officials… This order is not just for PWD, but other officials also need to wake up from their slumber and ensure our directions are complied with,” the court said.
 
The court further said, the PWD outsourced the work to contractors, but could not blacklist such contractors and issue notice.
 
 
Issuing fresh directions, the bench ruled: “The contractor will not allow any labourer to enter the drain without safety gear. We direct the PWD to deposit a cost of Rs 5 lakh with the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis within four weeks.”