Pune: National Commission for Scheduled Castes and National Commission for Safai Karamcharis have initiated separate proceedings into the Moshi tragedy in which nine people died. They sent notices to Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation and district collector seeking detailed reports on the collapse and the action taken by the administration within two weeks.Tons of garbage crashed into the administrative building of PCMC’s waste-to-energy (WTE) plant in Moshi on July 8, causing the administrative building to collpase.In its notice on July 13, the Scheduled Caste Commission’s director G Sunil Kumar Babu said after a complaint from Sagar Charan, national legal advisor of Akhil Bharatiya Safai Mazdoor Sangh, it decided to investigate the matter. If municipal commissioner Vijay Suryawanshi fails to respond within the stipulated time, the commission may exercise the power of civic courts conferred upon it and issue summons to him to appear in person in the matter.The safai karamcharis panel, in a separate communication on July 13 to district collector Jitendra Dudi, said it has taken suo motu cognisance of the incident based on a representation from Akhil Bharatiya Safai Mazdoor Sangh and media reports highlighting the tragedy.“The tragic incident shows serious violations of Prevention of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Rehabilitation Act 2013, which mandates absolute dignity, safety and risk protection for sanitation personnel,” its secretary Rahul Kashyap stated in the letter. He sought details, including names of the victims, the accused arrested in the case, and details of the compensation.Police on Friday produced Ashok Kumar Gupta, project head of the Moshi waste-to-energy (WTE) plant, before a local court after the expiry of his police custody. He was sent to magisterial custody by the court.Gupta was arrested by Bhosari MIDC police after an FIR was registered against him and safety officer Vijay Sapkal of Antony Lara Renewable Energy Pvt Ltd — a subsidiary of Antony Waste Handling Cell Ltd that operates the plant. Sapkal was yet to be arrested as he was in hospital due to injuries sustained in the accident. They have been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder over alleged negligence in implementing safety measures that led to the disaster.
