Mangalore, November 26: Manual cleaning of drainage has been continuing in Dakshina Kannada district including in the city of Mangalore, in spite of Deputy Commissioner's recent warning.
"I have been working under a contractor for seven years. On several occasions, I've got injured by syringes and needles. I work from 9am to 5.30pm every day. We don't have benefits like provident fund and our salary is enough only for bus fare and food.'' Said Gajendra, a 27-year old Dalit worker, after carrying out his routine cleaning work at Pandeshwar on Friday.
He lamented there is no medical facility for workers who clean sewage lines. "Since we have no other job, we are forced to clean this," he added.
Over 30 daily wage workers work in the underground drainage section of the Mangalore City Corporation which has a cesspool, but it was not used to suck dirty water from the manhole at Bunder.
Although it was ordered by DC to make use of sucking and jetting machines of the city corporation for such cleaning activities and completely stop manual labour immediately, the machines have been dumped, said Dalit Sangharsh Samiti leader S P Anand.
While contacted DC Channappa Gowda said, the MCC commissioner has been directed to inquire into the issue.
It can be recalled that Kitta Koraga (55), a Dalit worker died on November 6, after he fell into the septic tank of Abhinandana Hotel in Kinnigoli, near Mulky, while doing manual scavenging. Following this, the DC issued a circular banning manual scavenging.
MCC commissioner Harish Kumar had also warned stringent action against those violating the Karnataka Manual Scavenging (Prohibition) Act.
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