Regional
HC asks MCDs to conduct survey on manual scavenging
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the municipal corporations here to conduct a survey of persons engaged or employed in manual scavenging within their jurisdiction within two months.
A division bench of Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva said even after the enactment of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act in 2013, the “plight of such person engaged in manual scavenging has not improved”.
It also expressed displeasure that the survey, which was supposed to be completed within two months of the act coming into force on September 19, 2013 has not been carried out till now.
Until the list of people engaged in the profession is made, their rehabilitation process could not begin, said the bench.
As per the act, once the list is published, all such people will be discharged from working as manual scavengers, and will be given financial and other assistance.
The court directed all municipal corporations including the New Delhi Municipal Corporation and Delhi Cantonment Board to submit the report after completion of the survey, while asking the Delhi Jal Board, Northern Railways and other authorities to cooperate in its conduct.
It further directed the civic agencies to carry out a survey of insanitary latrines (which requires human excreta to be cleaned or otherwise handled manually) existing within its jurisdiction within two months.
As per the act, all such insanitary latrines are to be either demolished or converted into a sanitary latrine.
The court also directed the authorities to submit a status report on construction of adequate number of sanitary community latrines in their jurisdiction, which, according to the act, was to be completed within three years
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What monkey fled with a bag containing evidence in it: Read full story
The court, generally, considers a person who commit a crime and the one who destroys the evidence, as criminals in the eyes of law. But what if an animal destroys the evidence of a crime committed by a human.
In a peculiar incident in Rajasthan, a monkey fled away with the evidence collected by the police in a murder case. The stolen evidence included the murder weapon (a blood-stained knife).
The incident came to light when the police appeared before the court and they had to provide the evidence in the hearing.
The hearing was about the crime which took place in September 2016, in which a person named Shashikant Sharma died at a primary health center under Chandwaji police station. After the body was found, the deceased’s relatives blocked the Jaipur-Delhi highway, demanding an inquiry into the matter.
Following the investigation, the police had arrested Rahul Kandera and Mohanlal Kandera, residents of Chandwaji in relation to the murder. But, when the time came to produce the evidence related to the case, it was found that the police had no evidence with them because a monkey had stolen it from them.
In the court, the police said that the knife, which was the primary evidence, was also taken by the monkey. The cops informed that the evidence of the case was kept in a bag, which was being taken to the court.
The evidence bag contained the knife and 15 other important evidences. However, due to the lack of space in the malkhana, a bag full of evidence was kept under a tree, which led to the incident.