While Haryana continues to grab headlines for introducing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automated monitoring in its civic agencies, the state has failed to tackle the practice of manual sewerage cleaning. In the third such tragedy this month, two more sanitation workers lost their lives after inhaling toxic fumes.
The latest incident occurred on Saturday evening in Greater Faridabad, right in front of Puri Pranam Society. The victims, identified as Rajendra and Sunil, both residents of Kheri Kalan village, had entered a manhole to carry out cleaning work. Reports indicate they were working without any safety equipment or gas masks. When the duo failed to return home, their families launched a search operation on Sunday morning. They discovered the workers’ bicycle and motorbike abandoned near the manhole. They later found both men unconscious in the sewer.
Police and locals eventually retrieved the bodies, which were sent to BK Hospital for post-mortem. BPTP Station House Officer (SHO) Arvind Kumar confirmed that the deaths were caused by asphyxiation due to poisonous gases trapped inside the sewer. The police have registered a case against the estate manager of the BPTP builder on a complaint from Sunil’s brother.
This year has seen a string of fatal accidents involving sanitation and infrastructure workers across the NCR region.
In April 2026 in Nuh, two workers died and one was critically injured on the National Highway 248A in Ferozepur Jhirka. Despite being employed by a contractor for the Public Health Engineering Department, they were sent into the toxic environment without protection. The contractor fled following the incident.
In March 2026, a wall collapse at an under-construction Sewage Treatment Plant in Gurugram) killed seven migrant workers. The Haryana Human Rights Commission (HHRC) subsequently issued a notice demanding a report on the incident.
In April 2026, another sanitation worker perished in Palwal near Gurugram border while cleaning a sewer, once again highlighting the continued reliance on unsafe manual practices. Despite judicial bans on manual scavenging, the lack of gas-detection kits and mechanised cleaning gear continues to turn sewers into death traps across Haryana’s urban hubs.
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Remembering Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia
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