Bombay HC seeks info on steps taken to eradicate manual scavenging

A division bench of Justices Nitin M Jamdar and M M Sathaye on Friday passed an order in a plea by the organisation Shramik Janata Sangh and a father of a worker who had died while manual scavenging, argued through advocates Hamza Lakdawala and Deepali Kasul.

Last month, the bench had directed the state government and municipal corporations in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to ensure statutory authorities at state and divisional levels are constituted and are functional noting that their objective should be to ensure the 2013 law is employed in its fullest rigour in the state.

On Friday, the state government filed an affidavit stating that it has constituted the state level monitoring committee and vigilance panel for each district on July 31, 2019. The court sought to know if the state committee has conducted its meeting at least twice in a year as mandated in the law since their formation and what activities the committees ‘of importance’ have carried out so far.

The state government submitted that the Commissioner of Social Welfare, Pune, is appointed as nodal officer to coordinate with different departments and collect the details and information is also sought from municipal corporations, which the court said should be given to it through an affidavit before the next date of hearing on July 5.

The court also asked the State Level Monitoring Committee to prepare a draft action plan for the next two years detailing the steps to be taken for effective implementation of the 2013 law.