New Delhi: A Delhi Public Works Department (PWD) official was suspended on 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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