BHOPAL: The office of Urban administration and development minister Bhupendra Singh on Tuesday wrote to commissioner of police (CP), Bhopal Makrand Deoskar to initiate criminal action against Gujarat-based company, whose two employees including its field engineer and labourer were killed after getting down a manhole in the state capital on Monday.
The minister also announced ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh each to next to the kin of the deceased.
As per the minister’s office’s letter to the CP, the labourer was a minor, hence, says the letter, the company- Ankita Construction Company- committed another offence by employing a minor for the job besides sending both the persons- the field engineer Deepak Kumar Singh, a resident of Kushinagar and the labourer Bharat Singh, a resident of Jhabua, to clean the sewage line without any safety equipment.
“This has been made clear in the inquiry report of commissioner, Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) that both the employees went to work in the manhole without any safety equipment and norm. In the report want of safety norms has been mentioned as the main reason prima facie behind the incident”, states the letter.
“A complaint has been lodged with Gandhinagar police station by BMC. Criminal negligence of Ankita Construction ostensibly caused the incident. This fact has also come to light that the deceased labourer was a minor person”, says the letter.
The letter states that minister has issued instructions that in view of the inquiry report the company Ankita Construction Company has indulged in a criminal negligence. Hence, in view of gravity of the incident an FIR be lodged against authorities of the company in respect with the serious crime and also engaging a minor labourer.
Earlier, post-mortem was conducted on the two by the doctors of Hamidia hospital on Tuesday.
Gandhinagar police station in charge Arun Sharma said the field engineer and the labourer climbed down the manhole to measure it when the incident took place. They were workers of Ankita Construction Company of Gujarat, which had bagged a contract in 2018 from BMC for laying a sewage line.
He added the family members of Bharat Singh reached the hospital from Jhabua and in their presence the PM was conducted. The family members took the body to their native place. Similarly the family members of Dipak Kumar also reached hospital in the evening and in their presence the PM was conducted. As per family members they would take the body to Kushinagar.
On the BMC’s complaint he said police would record the statements of the company officials and also the BMC officials to fix the responsibility of the incident before lodging the FIR.
‘Employees were not suppose to climb down’ Ankita Construction Company’s project manager Vipul Patel said, “The employees were sent for just measurement of the breadth and depth of the manhole. They were not supposed to climb down the manhole. We use machines to clean sewage line if there is any need for cleaning.”
