Two sanitation workers cleaning a sewage chamber on the campus of a multinational automobile company in the Ranjangaon industrial area died of suspected suffocation Saturday morning, said Pune rural police.
The police said they were in the process of registering an offence against staffers of a facility management company which was contracted with the sewage cleaning work. The police identified the deceased as Macchindra Dagdu Kale, 42 and Subhash Sukhdeo Ughde, 36. The incident took place around 10.35 am on Saturday on the campus located in the Ranjangaon Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) area, located around 60 kilometres from Pune city.
“The two workers were using a suction pump to clean a sewage line on the campus of the company. While inserting the suction pipe, one of them slipped and fell into the sewage chamber. The other worker entered the 12-foot-deep chamber using a ladder. When the second worker tried to pull the first out, he too fainted and fell into the chamber. It took around an hour for other staffers to take the two out of the danger. The two were rushed to a hospital where they were pronounced dead on arrival,” said inspector Bhagwant Mandage, in-charge of the Ranjangaon police station.
Inspector Mandage added, “we are in the process of registering a first information report against the concerned staffers of the facility management company which was given the contract for the sewage cleaning work. The case is being registered on the charges of causing death due to negligence. Adequate safety measures were not in place which resulted in the death of the two workers.”
