Mumbai: The Bombay high court has sought to know from the state govt and the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation what the Kalyan West nullah, in which a man died in June 2023 due to electrocution, was meant for. Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande on Wednesday said they expect the state and KDMC to submit material “to establish the exact nature of the site where the incident has taken place” Senior advocate Gayatri Singh, for Shramik Janata Sangh, claimed, “it was a storm water drain with an underlying sewage connection.”In March 2024, the Sangh highlighted Ritik Kurkute’s death. He was an employee of a KDMC contractor. On Feb 5, the state said that he was not engaged in manual scavenging and compensation cannot be given under the Prohibition of Manual Scavengers Act. The HC asked senior advocate Singh to respond.Singh said Kurkute was engaged in manual cleaning of the contaminated stormwater drain. While working in this drain, which received sewage, he was engaged in manual scavenging as defined under the Act, she asserted.The judges said from photographs it can be inferred that “though it is a drain, it has the flow from sewage and sewer lines and working therein would amount to ‘manual scavenging’.” State’s advocate said the drain was of storm water and would not be covered under the Act, as the definition ‘manual scavenger’ would apply to a person engaged for manual cleaning or handling of human excreta in an open drain/ pit into which excreta from insanitary latrines is disposed of. Adjourning the hearing to March 24, the judges said, “Unless it is established that the storm water drain had a connection from the sewer, carrying human excreta, it will not become a site for manual scavenging.”
