Debangana Ray
Published on July 15, 2022 at 20:47 IST
Taking note of the photographs depicting that no protective gears have been provided to the workers and they were still waist deep under the water for cleaning drains in the city of Prayagraj, the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday summoned the District Magistrate and Nagar Ayukt of Prayagraj District.
The Bench of Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice J. J. Munir was dealing with a suo moto PIL petition wherein the Court had taken note of a news item showing that without any protective gears, open drains were being cleaned up by the persons deployed either by the Nagar Nigam or through contractors in the district.
“From the aforesaid photographs, it is evident that no protective gears have been provided to the workers and they were still waist deep under the water for cleaning of drains.”
The Court remarked after taking into account the pictures on the record, “Some of the drains are in open areas but still no machines were being used for cleaning of the drains, though it is claimed that Nagar Nigam has a number of machines available, which are being used for cleaning of drains.”
The Court further noted that in the affidavit filed by Upper Nagar Ayukt dated June 13, 2022, there was no response to the aforesaid factual position placed on record by the Amicus Curiae appointed by this Court.
Under these circumstances, the Court observed that, “…we are constrained to summon the District Magistrate and Nagar Ayukt, Prayagraj. Accordingly, the District Magistrate and Nagar Ayukt, Prayagraj are directed to appear in person in the court on the next date of hearing.”
With this, the matter was adjourned to July 25, 2022.
Importantly, on June 6, the Allahabad High Court had even directed the Uttar Pradesh Government to hand over every sanitary worker a printed pamphlet enlisting their rights and entitlements.
In this regard, the Sitting-Bench of Justice Chandra Kumar Rai and Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta has asked the State Government to prepare a brief one-page pamphlet specifying the rights and entitlements of the sanitary workers and publish the same in the newspapers.