Death of two workers inside sewage tank in Cuttack: NHRC seeks report from CMC, police

Cuttack: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) sought report from Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) and police in death of two workers due to asphyxiation inside a sewage tank at CDA area here last year.

In this regard, the statutory public body served a notice to Housing & Urban Development Secretary, CMC Commissioner and Commissionerate Police directing them to submit a report within four weeks.

Meanwhile, Orissa High Court has directed the state government to submit a status report on death of two CMC workers. The next hearing has been scheduled to December 21.

Contractor DK Nayak in his affidavit submitted to the court made it clear that he was no longer related to the matter as the contract had ended on March 31, 2021 and it was not renewed further.

However, CMC deputy commissioner and Barang Additional Tahasildar in a joint report clearly mentioned that Nayak was assigned by Watco for the sewerage work from April 1, 2021 to June 30, 2021.

On April 15, 2021, two workers had died of asphyxiation after being trapped in a sewage tank in CDA-10 area in Cuttack.

According to reports, three persons — P Shankar of Cuttack city, Bishnu Nayak of Badamba area and T Shiva — were engaged in sewerage work when the mishap took place at around 11 AM on the fateful day.

Reportedly, one of the workers first got trapped around 15-feet-deep inside the sewage tank, following which his co-worker went inside to rescue him. When both of them did not return for a long time, the third worker moved inside to find them. When no one came out, locals called up a firefighting team. The fire personnel rescued the three and sent all of them to SCB Medical College and Hospital for treatment. However, two of them — P Shankar and Bishnu Nayak — succumbed while undergoing treatment.