An appalling incident of manual scavenging came to light from Mysore, where a civic worker was asked to unclog a blocked drain by the village panchayat president.
On Tuesday, the panchayat president of Tavarakatte village near Chamundeshwari temple in Mysore allegedly told the civic worker to get into a blocked drain and unclog it. She wanted the worker to do it "immediately."
The worker, Ganesh, initially refused, saying that the block was so severe that equipment had to be brought in to clear the sewer line. In spite of this, he alleged that panchayat president Geetha forced him to manually clean the manhole as it was right in front of her house.
Ganesh also alleged that she went to the extent of dismissing him if he failed to comply with her order. She even called the panchayat development officer (PDO) to force him to do it. Scared of losing his job, not only did he enter the manhole but also asked a friend to take a video of him cleaning it. This video was later handed over to media outlets.
Soon after the video of Ganesh getting into the manhole went viral, Geetha rushed for damage control. She told mediapersons that she did not force Ganesh to clean. "I have nothing to do with this. This is a conspiracy against me. I have offered Ganesh soap and water to clean himself. Yet, I'm being targeted," she told the reporters.
According to reports, a police complaint has been registered against Geetha and PDO Anand for criminal intimidation and violations of Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers Act which could lead to a jail term of two years.
P Shivashankar, zila panchayat chief executive officer, said that the complaint was registered after a preliminary enquiry with civic workers. "The main official in-charge had met with an accident two days ago, and he was not there. But since the GP President is also head of the panchayat, she has asked the workers to take up this work. Since she is not an official, we have sent a report to the government to remove her membership (from the panchayat)," Shivashankar told mediapersons.
He also said that a probe is underway to check if any other officials are involved.
