Two workers die of asphyxiation inside sewage pumping station while cleaning in Gujarat

Ahmedabad: Two workers died allegedly of asphyxiation after they were trapped in an underground sewage pumping station they had entered to clean in Patdi town of Gujarat's Surendranagar district on Tuesday.

Local sources said that the two workers identified as Jayesh Patadiya and Chirag Patadiya, who were contractual workers with Patdi municipality had entered the pumping station without any safety gears.

Scores of activists from NGO and relatives of the deceased demanded compensation and lodgement of FIR against the contractor for sending the workers without any safety gears.

Later in the evening, an FIR was registered at Patdi police station against Mausum Patel, chief officer, Patdi Municipality, Harshadbhai, sanitary inspector, and Sanjay S Patel, chief contractor.

They have been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, reckless or negligent actions that endanger the safety of others or human life, among other charges under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and sections of Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 as well as sections of scheduled caste and scheduled tribe atrocity act.  

Earlier in December, four migrant workers were killed after toxic gas leakage from the distillation unit of Chloromethane plant (CMS) of Gujarat Fluorochemicals Limited in Bharuch district.

Similarly in October, five workers were killed due to asphyxiation while cleaning a sludge tank of ‘Emami Agrotech', a firm which deals in the production of edible oil and biodiesel in Kutch district.

In July, three labourers suffocated to death at an illegal coal mine in Surendranagar district. The victims, all in their 30s, were digging a mine in Thangadh taluka without any safety gear. 

In 2023, four workers including a father-son duo died while cleaning a tank of a water recycling plant in Surat district.