Hyderabad: In a tragic incident, two workers died in a manhole of a stormwater drain, which they had entered to do manual scavenging, at Sahebnagar in LB Nagar late on Tuesday night. Their bodies were recovered only after an extensive operation that lasted several hours on Wednesday.
The deceased were identified as Butla Shiva, 24, hailing from Dindi village, and Navalli Ananthaiah, 45, from Mustipally, both in Nalgonda district. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) said the duo died of asphyxiation. The rescue operations went on for over 18 hours.
Shiva and Ananthaiah were hired by contractor B. Yellaiah, who was tasked by the GHMC to clear the stormwater drain. Indicating gross negligence, the GHMC did not tell him that it was connected to sewer lines carrying drainage from nearby colonies in LB Nagar.
Manual scavenging is banned and so is working in the drains at night. Both these rules were violated, with fatal consequences.
Neither of the workers was given protective gear. The incident occurred just weeks after minister K.T. Rama Rao and sewerage board managing director M. Dana Kishore had assured that manual scavenging would be ended in the city.
The police said contractor Yellaiah engaged Shiva and Ananthaiah to desilt the public sewerage system at Sahebnagar under Vanasthalipuram police station limits at 10.30 pm.
According to the police, Shiva entered the manhole and lost consciousness after some time. He fell into the drainage water. Yellaiah called Ananthaiah who was working at another manhole. Ananthaiah rushed to the spot and tried to help Shiva but he also lost consciousness and fell into the drainage.
The police and fire services were called in to retrieve the bodies. Fire officer B. Sreenaiah said around 10 fire fighters along with DRF teams worked to recover Ananthaiah's body. The drainage pipes were narrow, and diggers were brought in to dig up the drain and retrieve the bodies.
Contractor Yellaiah declared Rs 5 lakh compensation to the workers. Neither the GHMC nor Mayor Gadwal R Vijayalakshmi announced any ex-gratia.
Vanasthalipuram ACP K. Purushotham Reddy said, “We have registered a case under the Manual Scavenging Act against the contractor. Further investigation is underway."
Sources said the authorities had hired contractor Yellaiah only to remove silt from the stormwater drain but did not inform him about sewer water entering the drain.
Asked about the incident, a GHMC official told this newspaper, "These two workers are not GHMC staff and they were engaged by B. Yellaiah contractor. He was given the job to remove the silt from manholes and pipelines at Sahebnagar, Waddera Basthi, Hariharapuram, Balajinagar, SKD and other colonies at the cost of Rs 12.70 lakh.”
“The contractor without the knowledge of the GHMC opened the cover of a 10-feet deep manhole at Padmavathi Colony, BN Reddy Nagar, to clean the sewer lines without providing safety gear to the workers. As soon as they opened the manhole cover, they fell into the sewer line.”
Officials said the sewer trunk passed through Gandhinagar, Akilandeswari Nagar, Snehamayi Nagar and Padmavathinagar, all located downstream of the Kaprai Cheruvu, which has been overflowing due to continuous rainfall.
After a joint inspection by local corporator M. Lachi Reddy, deputy commissioner A. Maruthu Diwakar and executive engineer K. Rajaiah, it was decided that bucket cleaning was essential and work got started.
Victim leaves behind 23-year-old pregnant wife
Butla Shiva, one of the two workers who died after entering a drain on Tuesday night, is survived by his wife Gowri, 23, who is eight months pregnant.
Gowri said on Wednesday, “My husband received a call at around 9 pm from his supervisor who summoned him to work. This was the first time he went to work at night.”
She said Shiva was reluctant to work at night, but the supervisor pressured him. “At midnight, I was informed Shiva had fallen unconscious after entering a manhole. The supervisor escaped from the spot."
Navalli Ananthaiah is survived by his wife Bhayamma, 40. It is believed that Ananthaiah was washed away as soon as he entered the manhole. Teams worked 18 hours to rescue him, but could only manage to recover his body.
Official apathy leads to tragedy
The Tuesday’s accident at a manhole in LB Nagar was the result of game of passing the buck played between the GHMC and the HMWS&SB.
In October last, the HMWS&SB handed over the oversight and maintenance of the sewerage system at the peripheral areas back to the GHMC. According to sources, GHMC commissioner D.S. Lokesh Kumar issued an internal circular informing that the maintenance of the sewerage network would be handed over to the HMWS&SB by the end of August.
This was communicated to contractor B. Yellaiah, who was told that if he did not complete the work in the stipulated time, his bill would be stuck for at least three months with the HMDS&SB. This resulted in the contractor rushing through with the work.
LB Nagar legislator Devireddy Sudheer Reddy, who had overseen the rescue operation, said that there was no permission to carry out the work at night. However, he went ahead and attempted to take up desilting works in violation of norms.
GHMC disregards its own report
The GHMC ignored its own report which stated that at about 625 locations, sewage water was being let into stormwater drains. In another 50 locations, stormwater was entering sewerage lines maintained by the HMWS&SB, the report stated.
The unauthorised mixing of drainage and stormwater in drains is leading to unhygienic conditions. The wastewater is directly flowing into water bodies via stormwater drains, thereby polluting the lakes. The city has about 1,200 km of stormwater drains.
In 2019, M. Dana Kishore headed both the GHMC and the HMWS&SB, the two bodies jointly carried out inspections for taking up remedial measures. Officials zeroed in on 625 locations where sewerage water was mixed with stormwater lines and vice versa.
The teams reported back that in the absence of an underground drainage network, residents had no option than to let sewage water into stormwater drains. The 12 municipal circles which were added to the GHMC in 2007 do not have proper sewage systems.
No action was taken, and the report gathered dust. Had the issue been addressed, it could have saved Butla Shiva and Navalli Ananthaiah.
