The Delhi government has paid Rs 3 lakhs as relief to the widow of a man who died after falling into an open manhole though it had earlier insisted that there was no provision to compensate victims of such cases. The Delhi police arrested the negligent junior engineer of the MCD after registering a case against him.
The government action has come after the intervention of the NHRC, which set aside the state’s contention and established that the matter involved the “violation of right to life and negligence of a public servant in preventing that.” On March 15, 2010, Devender Kumar Prasad, the sole breadwinner of his family, fell into a manhole and died. The civic body refused to give any compensation citing the bizarre reason that there was no provision to grant relief to the victims of such cases.
However, the NHRC issued directions to Delhi chief secretary setting aside the contentions.