Chandigarh, August 27
Taking strong notice of the incident wherein two men died after inhaling poisonous gas during sewer cleaning in Balachaur area of SBS Nagar, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), on the orders of its Chairman Vijay Sampla, issued a notice to the Punjab Government officials and asked them to submit an immediate action taken report.
As per the information received by the NCSC from a news story published in a newspaper on August 23, 2022, a sewer man had gone down the sewer for cleaning when he started to feel uneasy after inhaling poisonous gas. However, when he asked for help, a passer-by too, went down the sewer to rescue him, but both got asphyxiated.
Meanwhile, the Commission asked the Chief Secretary (Punjab), the Director General of Police (DGP-Punjab Police), the Deputy Commissioner (Nawanshahr district) and the Superintendent of Police (Nawanshahr district), to investigate the matter and to submit the action taken report, immediately, through post or email, based on the facts and information on the action taken on the allegation/matter.
Sampla further asked the senior officials to also provide relevant documents related to the cases, including a copy of FIR, medical reports of the deceased people and amount of relief provided to the family of the deceased.
Sampla cautioned the officers that if action taken report is not received within the stipulated time, then Commission might exercise the powers of the civil court conferred on it under article 338 of the Constitution of India and issue a summon for personal appearance before the commission in Delhi.
