Puri urges mechanised sewer cleaning
Minister also calls for ensuring segregation of waste at the source in the national capital
Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri, yesterday expressed serious concern over the deaths of sewer cleaners in the city.
The minister, while addressing a gathering at an event organised under the Swacchata Hi Sewa [cleanliness is service] campaign by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) at the India Gate, also stressed the need for mechanised cleaning of sewers.
Puri said his concern over unsafe and manual cleaning of sewers was shared by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who met him on Tuesday, according to a statement released by the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry.
The ministry said he has expressed serious concern over the death of the sanitation workers while manually cleaning clogged sewers in the national capital.
He added that “a good portion of the Rs300 crores [Rs3 billion, Dh168 million] sanctioned by his ministry for the three municipal corporations of Delhi would be spent on procuring mechanised sewer cleaners”.
Puri said the national capital of Delhi is among the major global cities of the world and it needs to be clean to be worthy of that status.
The minister appealed to the citizens of Delhi and other agencies such as hotels, to not dump garbage into sewers to prevent clogging.
“We should give up the ‘welitter-and-others-would-clean’ attitude,” the minister said, and called for ensuring segregation of waste at the source in the national capital.
On August 20, a 45-yearold sanitation worker died and three others were taken ill, allegedly while cleaning a sewer at the city government-run Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital in central Delhi.
In three separate incidents over a month leading to that fatality, nine people had died in similar circumstances.
Machines to clean
The deaths had prompted authorities in Delhi to decide on mechanised cleaning of sewers in the future.
Puri said the ongoing sanitation campaign, which started on September 15, has proved to be a catalyst in making the country cleaner.
As per reports, more than eight million citizens have participated in the campaign in the urban areas of the country. CPWD has built 1,200 toilet for Mahanadi Coalfields, he added.