Two deaths in a black hole, for a sum of Rs 200

Bhivaji Baban Sable, a recent migrant to Mumbai’s labour class , had warned his two colleagues of the foul smell and suffocation inside the manhole...

Bhivaji Baban Sable (21), a recent migrant to Mumbai’s labour class , had warned his two colleagues of the foul smell and suffocation inside the manhole—he had ventured 7 metres down into the 30-foot deep manhole in Ghatkopar, only to return hastily. Then Jagannath Bapu Wayal (35) took the plunge, to remove the wooden planks choking the sewer line on Sunday afternoon.

With no safety gear, a barebodied Wayal was knocked unconscious by the poisonous fumes within seconds. Having pulled out his unconscious colleague, Navnath Namdev Suryavanshi (40) then attempted to enter the choked sewer line. Within minutes, the attempt to finish the assigned job and take home Rs 200 saw Wayal and Suryavanshi meet a tragic end.

The death of two contract labourers in Mumbai on Sunday has put the focus back on the negligence of safety measures for workers toiling on the overdue upgradation of the financial capital’s sewer network. But, while Wayal and Suryavanshi were working on the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission-funded Mumbai Sewage Disposal Project (MSDP), the police had, till Monday evening, filed no case regarding the accident.

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“According to the contractor, the labourers were not supposed to work on Sunday. We will have to get evidence of negligence on the part of the contractor,” said Sub Inspector Vikram More of Pantnagar police.

Wayal, Suryavanshi and Sable had been hired to carry out excavation for laying a sewer line, said civic officials. They had never entered manholes before. In his statement to the police, Sable has stated that he first refused to climb down into the hole.

“Then Suryavanshi told me I will be paid Rs 200. I agreed,’’ he has said. Sable came to Mumbai only five months ago from Shirur Taluka in Pune.

Suryavanshi and Wayal, both seasonal migrant labourers, who look for work in the city from October to May and return to their native villages for farming during the monsoon, took a blind risk, unaware of the dangers, for a few extra rupees. Bapusaheb Wayal, Jagannath’s elder brother and also a labourer in Mumbai, said the daily wage for those working on MSDP is about Rs 130. “Who would not compromise for a few rupees when one is living like this?” he asked.

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With a few acres of land back in suicide-prone Vidarbha region, Wayal and wife both worked as daily wagers in the city.Their two sons, Sampat (7) and Parmeshwar (5), are back home in Solapurwadi, Beed district.

Suryavanshi’s condition was similar. A small patch of land in Karjat taluka, Ahmednagar district, sees a good jowar crop, but division of the produce with two brothers means there are small portions for each.

“He never told us what type of work he did. He would save a thousand or two thousand rupees to send to us in the village. This is for the first time I’m seeing what a gutter in Mumbai is like,’’ says his widow Janabai, on her first and unfortunate visit to the financial capital to pick up her husband’s body.

Additional Municipal Commissioner Manu Kumar Srivastava said that a showcause notice would be issued to the contractor. “We will also be lodging an FIR against the contractor,’’ he said.

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“Our engineers were not aware that the contractor was at the site on a Sunday. A technical circular on guidelines to be followed will be issued to the contractors so to prevent such mishaps.”