Pune: Two persons have died after they got trapped in a septic chamber of a private residential complex in city's Wagholi area on Moze college road, said Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority officials.
The officials recovered bodies of the two deceased on Friday from the chamber and search for one missing person is underway.
"The victims were working in an 18-feet deep drainage-cum-septic tank. It seems that they were suffocated and got stuck inside. We were informed about it around 7 am and after reaching the spot, we took the bodies of two workers out," an official from the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority's fire brigade department said.
As per the information given by the residents, there is the possibility that one more worker is stuck inside, he said.
"People here are saying that there were a total of three workers. We also saw three pairs of footwear outside the tank, so a search is on for the third worker," the official said.
Manual scavenging prohibition
Employing manual scavengers in India, as per the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers, is a punishable offence. Despite, the prohibition and Rehabilitation Act, 2013, manual scavenging continues across all states in India, including Maharashtra.
Pune civic body's Bandicoots bot
Pune city civic body had recently introduced three robots named 'Bandicoot' to clean and maintain city manholes safely without jeopardizing lives of workers, stated reports. .
These advanced bots can clean sewages efficiently and has sensors to recognise if there are foul gas eminating from the manhole which is one of the major cause of death among scavengers.
With PTI inputs
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