Taking Steps To Ensure Sanitation Workers' Safety: Centre To Delhi Court

Taking Steps To Ensure Sanitation Workers' Safety: Centre To Delhi Court
New Delhi:

The Central government has told the Delhi High Court that it has taken various steps to ensure the safety of sanitation workers during the ongoing coronavirus crisis as per the guidelines issued by the World Health Organization (WHO).

A division bench of Chief Justice of Delhi DN Patel and Justice C Harishankar, after hearing the submissions on Friday, asked the Centre to file a detailed report on the issue and slated the matter for further hearing on May 8.

Additional solicitor general Maninder Acharya, appearing for the Centre, submitted that various steps have already been taken by the Union of India as envisaged in the guidelines issued by the WHO.

Acharya highlighted the risk sanitation workers are facing while discharging their duties, especially, cleaning of bio-medical waste, ICU units, etc, and submitted that a total of 3,46,929 N95 face masks and 60,890 personal protective equipment (PPE) kits have been given to the Delhi government.

The court was hearing a petition, filed by social activist Harnam Singh through advocate Mahmood Pracha, seeking directions for the safety of lakhs of sanitation workers who have been carrying out waste collection and disposal amidst the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

The plea said that the petitioner had earlier approached the Supreme Court for securing the safety of the "vulnerable and highly exposed" sanitation workers, and the Supreme Court had disposed of the petition while recording the categorical submission that adequate safety equipment was being provided to them as per mandatory WHO guidelines.

"Even though the order implies that the safety of all sanitation workers has been ensured by strict compliance with guidelines for disbursement of protective equipment to them, the petitioner has come across information from several sources, including news articles, of the completely hapless and offensive extent to which sanitation workers have been left to fend for themselves," the plea said.

It said that the sanitation workers largely belong to the economically weaker section and that these workers are unlikely to have the means and opportunity to approach this court, and therefore the petitioner is moving the present petition in public interest.

World

Coronavirus has spread to 185 countries. The total confirmed cases worldwide are 29,71,477 and 2,06,535 have died; 18,99,547 are active cases and 8,65,395 have recovered as on April 27, 2020 at 8:32 am.

India

In India, there are 27,892 confirmed cases including 872 deaths. The number of active cases is 20,835 and 6,185 have recovered as on April 27, 2020 at 8:00 am.

State & District Details

State Cases Active Recovered Deaths Maharashtra

8068

6650

1076

342

Gujarat

3301

2837

313

151

Delhi

2918

1987

877

54

Rajasthan

2185

1634

518

33

Madhya Pradesh

2096

1691

302

103

Tamil Nadu

1885

841

1020

24

Uttar Pradesh

1868

1550

289

29

Andhra Pradesh

1097

835

231

31

Telangana

1002

696

280

26

West Bengal

649

524

105

20

Jammu And Kashmir

523

380

137

6

Karnataka

503

302

182

19

Kerala

458

116

338

4

Punjab

313

224

71

18

Haryana

289

110

176

3

Bihar

274

216

56

2

Odisha

103

67

35

1

Jharkhand

82

66

13

3

Uttarakhand

50

22

28

0

Himachal Pradesh

40

17

22

1

Chhattisgarh

37

5

32

0

Assam

36

8

27

1

Andaman And Nicobar Islands

33

22

11

0

Chandigarh

30

13

17

0

Ladakh

20

6

14

0

Meghalaya

12

11

0

1

Puducherry

7

4

3

0

Goa

7

0

7

0

Manipur

2

0

2

0

Tripura

2

0

2

0

Mizoram

1

1

0

0

Arunachal Pradesh

1

0

1

0

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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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