Manual scavenging: FIR against Panchayat President, PDO

Mysuru: An FIR (First Information Report) has been registered at Krishnaraja Police Station in city late last night against Geetha, President of Chamundi Hill Gram Panchayat and Anand, Panchayat Development Officer (PDO) for allegedly forcing a civic worker to climb down a manhole that was full with sewage yesterday.

PDO Anand was suspended by the State Government this afternoon.

Geetha and Anand allegedly asked Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) Pourakarmikas Ganesh and Cheluva to get inside the overflowing manhole in front of Geetha’s house at Thavarekere village at around 2 pm yesterday. The Pourakarmikas were asked to unclog the blocked drains as “she wanted it done immediately”.

Ganesh initially refused saying the block was so severe that they should wait for equipment to be brought in to clear up the sewer line. But he alleged that Geetha insisted he dip into the manhole and physically clear it as it was right in front of her house.

Ganesh said, Geetha even got PDO Anand to put pressure on him, to the extent of threatening him with dismissal, if he failed to comply. Scared about losing his job, he got into the manhole, but also had a friend take a video of the same. The video was later handed over to the media. While Ganesh got into the manhole, Cheluva supported him. The incident that occurred despite the ban on manual cleaning of sewers has created an outrage in the State. The FIR has been registered by D.G. Gurushanthappa, Assistant Director, Social Welfare Department, Nazarbad.

The complaint has been filed for criminal intimidation and for violations of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers Act which prohibits local authorities from employing humans to clear sewer lines and septic tanks. All of these offences could attract jail terms of two years.

According to Zilla Panchayat (ZP) Chief Executive Officer P. Shivashankar, the complaint was filed after ZP officials did a preliminary enquiry and spoke to the civic workers. “The main official in-charge had met with an accident five days before and he was not there. But since the Gram Panchayat President is also head of the Panchayat, she 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 from the presidentship and membership (from the Panchayat),” Shivashankar told Star of Mysore this morning.

Panchayat members are elected without any party affiliation at the village level. He said a probe is also underway to ascertain whether there are other officials involved in the incident. “A probe has been ordered against Geetha and Anand and Taluk Panchayat Executive Officer Lingarajaiah. We will ascertain their role and action will be taken depending on the investigation report,” the ZP CEO said.

CHARGES DENIED

Meanwhile, GP President Geetha has denied the charges. “I never told Ganesh to clean the manhole. I had asked Cheluva to check the manhole but did not tell any Pourakarmika to get down and clean it. When I heard that Ganesh had entered the manhole, I visited the place and told him to come out and even gave him soap and shampoo for him to take bath,” she said.