NEW DELHI: The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) asked Delhi Police on Saturday to register an FIR against Aam Aadmi Party’s Uttam Nagar MLA Naresh Balyan for manual scavenging in his constituency allegedly on his directions.
NCSC chairman Vijay Sampla said in a statement that Balyan shared four photographs showing the cleaning of drains and sewers as part of monsoon preparedness. “In the attached pictures, it is clear that drain cleaning was done through manual scavenging. As per government rules, the sewers and drains should be cleaned with electro-hydraulic machines,” the statement read.
In one of the pictures, a few workers stripped to their lower garments and sans safety equipment can be seen standing near a manhole. Sampla responded on the microblogging site: “Politicians must not misuse the SC community. They should remember that manual scavenging and cleaning of sewage/drains manually is a banned practice. Delhi Police must register an FIR against him, investigate the matter and submit the immediate action taken report to NCSC.”
When contacted, Balyan, who is also a member of Delhi Jal Board, said the cleaning of the manhole was done mechanically and the workers only ferried the excavated debris to a vehicle. “I am aware that manual scavenging is banned. The cleaning was done mechanically. The workers didn’t go inside the manhole. They only carried materials and bricks pulled out of the manhole to a truck,” insisted Balyan. While adding that he was yet to receive any notice from NCSC or Delhi Police, he said, “I will reply to such notices accordingly.”
A DJB official said, “For the past few years, the board has been using trucks fitted with cleaning machines to clear drains and manholes. We have also provided manual scavengers with 200 small cleaning machines to help them become entrepreneurs.”
A Delhi government spokesperson added that laborers only carried silt to the trucks for disposal. “The silt in the stormwater drains is not sewage, just mud, bricks, rocks and sand,” the spokesperson said.
Bezwada Wilson, national convenor, Safai Karamchari Aandolan, debunked these claims and said he witnessed labourers cleaning a DJB line manually only 3-4 days ago. “Our agencies do not have machines to clean all drains and sewer lines comprehensively. Human intervention is still required. We need the government to take some more time but look at the issue holistically, prepare an action plan and allocate funds for a comprehensive solution to the problem,” said Wilson.
An MCD official admitted that manual cleaning was necessary to clean deep drains that were inaccessible to machines. “But we have a limited number of such drains. And workers are not required to enter the drain, we clean them using bell mouths,” the official claimed. Whenever workers had to enter the drains, “all necessary precautions are taken”, added another official.
