Latest news with #ManikyalaRao
New Indian Express
28-04-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Manhole deaths: Andhra Pradesh HC orders Rs 30 lakh compensation for victims
VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has issued landmark directives to ensure the welfare of sanitation workers, mandating substantial compensation and rehabilitation for those who die while cleaning manholes. The court ruled that all sanitation workers, who accidentally die while doing such hard tasks, are entitled to a compensation of Rs 30 lakh, as per the Supreme Court norms, along with comprehensive rehabilitation. This directive extends beyond the current case of Meda Manikyala Rao to include all similar deaths since 1983. The court instructed the Commissioner of Municipal Administration to collect data on such fatalities from all the urban local bodies as well as from workers' unions to facilitate provision of compensation and rehabilitation of the affected families. It emphasised identifying the agencies or authorities under which the deceased worked to ensure accountability. The court warned that officials of urban local bodies could be held liable for such deaths with adverse entries in their service records potentially barring future promotions. In the case of Manikyala Rao, the court ordered the State government to pay Rs 30 lakh to his family, provide a job to his wife, and impart education and skill training to his children. With Rs 10 lakh already disbursed, the remaining Rs 20 lakh should be paid within a month, the court ordered. The bench, comprising Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice ChRavi, issued these orders recently following a PIL filed last year by retired Vijayawada employee Tutika Dalayya, highlighting the illegal practice of manual manhole cleaning in the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation despite mechanisation mandate. The court condemned the continued reliance on manual cleaning, and scheduled the next hearing for July 16 to delve deeper into the issue. Advocate P Raviteja represented the petitioner.
The Hindu
27-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Andhra Pradesh High Court calls for data pertaining to ‘sewer deaths' from 1993
The Andhra Pradesh High Court has directed the Commissioner of Municipal Administration to collect data pertaining to the death of workers during the cleaning up of sewers from all the municipal corporations, municipalities and other local bodies from the year 1993, in order to pay compensation and rehabilitate their families as per norms. A Bench headed by Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice Ravi Cheemalapati said the data should reflect the exact number of 'sewer deaths' as the issue of payment of compensation could not be restricted to the case of Meda Manikyala Rao, a contract worker, who died due to inhalation of toxic fumes in a manhole (in Vijayawada city) that he had entered for cleaning. The data collection was intended to compensate the families of all those who died under such situations. Hearing a PIL filed by advocate P. Raviteja on behalf of T. Daalaiah, a retired employee, for justice to be done to manual scavengers, in compliance with the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Rehabilitation Act, 2013, on April 23, 2025, the judges said the Commissioner of Municipal Administration should also gather information from the unions working for the welfare and benefit of such workers. The matter was posted for further hearing to July 16, 2025. As far as the death of Manikyala Rao was concerned, the court ordered that the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation pay ₹20 lakh to his family, in addition to ₹10 lakh that had already been given, as per the Supreme Court judgments in the cases of Balram Singh vs. Union of India and others, and Safai Karamchari vs. Union of India and others. The court also directed that the State provide employment to Manikyala Rao's wife in order to ensure full rehabilitation to the next of their kin, including education to the wards, and appropriate skill training as mandated by the Supreme Court within two months from the above date. Responsibility in the form of monetary liability had to be pinned on the agencies for which the workers did manual scavenging. If the sewer workers who lost their lives were directly working under the control and supervision of the regular employees of the corporations, municipalities and other local bodies, such officers should also be held accountable by making appropriate remarks in their service records so as to prevent them from seeking promotion, the court ordered.
