As per the latest reports, the Telangana High Court’s Chief Justice Bench on Monday ordered Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to appear before it on March 7. If the State fails to file an affidavit duly furnishing information on the steps taken by it on the number of manual scavengers who died in the state while performing their work, whether the compensation of Rs 10 lakh was paid to the deceased scavengers’ dependents, whether the State conducted a survey to identify them, and whether the State had taken measures to ensure that manual scavenger system was ended in the State or not.
The Suo motu taken up PIL was adjudicated by a Bench consisting of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili, based on a news report published in an English daily reporting the pathetic condition of two sanitation workers who died in December 2021 while cleaning a septic tank in Kondapur, Hyderabad. When the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board told the court that they had no role to play in providing Rs 10 lakh in compensation to the dependents of two deceased manual scavengers, the Chief Justice was irritated.
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Turning to both government counsels, the Chief Justice commented that if both departments refuse to provide compensation to the deceased’s dependents, then who will? The Chief Justice further directed the Chief Secretary to make a thorough counter-affidavit response within 10 days or appear before the court on March 7. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court’s decision and other High Court rulings state that the state should conduct a survey of all manual scavengers in their state, identify them, give alternative work, and compensate the dependents of deceased manual scavengers with a sum of Rs 10 lakh.
Despite the fact that the incident occurred in December 2021, the State has yet to take any action to compensate the dependents of two deceased manual scavengers.
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