Three die of suffocation inside sewage treatment plant in Gzb

Ghaziabad: Three persons including two sanitation workers suffocated to death inside a sewage treatment plant in Ghaziabad's Loni area on Sunday morning.

It took a rescue team over three hours to recover the bodies from the tank, due to the high presence of poisonous gases and toxic fumes.

Cops said the incident took place around 9.30 am, when the sanitation workers were cleaning the tank of a pumping station at sewage treatment plant, operated by Ghaziabad Jal Nigam.

The deceased workers were identified as laborers Raushan lal and Mahesh, while police are still working to ascertain the identity of the third victim.

All the three deceased were aged between 35 and 40 years, cops further said.

According to police, the Raushan Lal and Mahesh were contractual workers assigned the job of cleaning the tank.

During the cleaning, one of the workers slipped into the tank, and after he failed to come out and did not respond for more than 15 minutes, the second worker jumped in to save his partner.

Later, a local man also jumped to rescue the two workers, but unfortunately he did not make it out either.

The locals and other workers alerted police when all the three stopped responding after several calls were made to them.

"The trio died after suffocating poisonous gases and toxic fumes," said police officials.

"After the information was received, a police team was rushed to the spot. The bodies of all the three persons were recovered from the tank with the help of cranes.

"They were rushed to the district hospital where doctors declared them brought dead after examination," said Durgesh Kumar Singh, circle officer, Loni.

As the sewage treatment plant comes under Ghaziabad Jal Nigam, an official of the board said that a proposal to provide compensation to the family members of the deceased sanitation workers is under consideration and help will be provided soon.

In the evening, the district magistrate ordered an investigation and an FIR against the company which was given the contract to clean the sewage was registered under section 304 A (death due to negligence) of the Indian Penal code.

Such incidents have often been reported from various states of the country over the past few years. Poor working conditions and lack of protective equipment and tools are among the reasons.

Manual scavenging, as well as unsafe cleaning of sewers has put thousands of lives at risk in various parts of the country.