Cuttack: Bereaved family members of a sanitation worker identified as P Narasingha, who lost his life yesterday after falling into an open drain at Barapathar near Buxi Bazaar locality under Dargah Bazaar police limits of Cuttack City, today staged a Dharna (sit-in) demanding Rs 10 lakh compensation.

The family kept the body of Narasingha in front of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) office here after a post-mortem was done at SCB Medical College and Hospital earlier in the day. However, apprehending any probable untoward situation, the civic body deployed police forces at the CMC main gate.

Reacting to this, CMC Mayor Subhash Chandra Singh and Commissioner Nikhil Pavan Kalyan jointly said that Narasingha was not an employee of the civic body. He was rather a temporary staffer of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). CMC has been analysing the incident to find a way out.

“CMC is responsible for the fatal mishap and we will continue the stir so long as adequate compensation of Rs 10 lakh is not given,” the family members as well as local corporator Kameswar Rao rued.

Worth mentioning, the incident occurred when Narasingha was removing silt from inside the drain. He suddenly fell into it and became critical and died on the spot. This triggered tension in the locality.