HC directs full compensation, fresh probe in 2021 sewer deaths
Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court has ordered full compensation and a fresh inquiry into a 2021 sewer accident in South Kolkata, holding the state government, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and agencies involved in a KEIIP project responsible for serious lapses in supervision and safety that led to the deaths of four labourers and injuries to three others while working inside an underground sewer on February 25, 2021.
The bench of Acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul court directed to ensure that each injured worker receives Rs 5 lakh within two months. It further ordered that each family of the deceased workers must be paid a total of Rs 30 lakh, after adjusting the Rs 10 lakh already paid. The bench rejected KMC’s contention that instructing the contractor to pay interim sums discharged its responsibility, observing that public authorities cannot avoid liability for sewer deaths.
The judges recorded that neither the state nor KMC had constituted the statutory monitoring committee required under the 2013 law that prohibits hazardous manual sewer cleaning.
The state has been directed to set up the committee within 30 days and place a compliance report before the court.
The bench ordered a fresh, independent investigation into the incident. The Commissioner of Police, Kolkata has been tasked with ensuring and supervising this probe and must submit a report within four weeks. The court noted that although an FIR was registered on the day of the accident, no affidavit had been filed to show progress in the investigation. KMC informed the court that the contractor firms had been blacklisted for five years and that a caution notice had been issued to the design-and-supervision consultant. The court held that such administrative steps did not absolve KMC or the State of their statutory duties, pointing to failures in supervision, safety oversight and compliance with legal requirements.
The State Legal Services Authority has been directed to contact the victims’ families, communicate the order and assist them in securing the compensation.
