COIMBATORE: The Saibaba Colony police in the city on Saturday arrested a contractor, a day after two workers fell into a sewage treatment plant tank and died.The arrested contractor has been identified as J Prabhakaran, 43, of Vinayagapuram near Saravanampatti in the city. Fire and rescue services personnel recovered the bodies of G Arjun Kumar, 38, of Rathinapuri and S Suresh Kumar, 27, of Pappampatti from the sewage treatment plant tank around 2am on Saturday. Both had fallen into the 40-foot-deep tank, which contained 15 feet of waste.According to sources, the two men fell into the tank around 5 pm on Friday while they were fixing a motor. Arjun Kumar slipped and fell into the sewage tank. Suresh Kumar tried to rescue Arjun, but he too fell into the tank.The Saibaba Colony police registered a case against Prabhakaran under Section 106 of the BNS, for causing death by negligence.Thippampatti V Aruchamy, chairman of the Tamil Nadu Cleanliness Workers Welfare Board, visited the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital and paid his respects to the deceased men. He said measures were being taken through the welfare board to secure the Rs 10 lakh compensation announced by chief minister M K Stalin. He said the contractor had agreed to provide Rs 30 lakh each to the families of the two deceased.“Due to the model code of conduct, we were unable to assure govt jobs for the kin of the two deceased men,” he added.AITUC state vice-president N Selvaraj demanded that the state govt provide Rs 50 lakh compensation to the families of the deceased. “A stringent case should be registered against the contractor, and legal punishment should be imposed. Moreover, training should be given on the use of safety gear and safety measures during such work,” he said.Coimbatore South constituency DMK candidate and former minister V Senthil Balaji visited the spot on Friday night.
