The Delhi High Court has sought a response from Centre on a plea seeking directions to ensure safety of lakhs of Sanitation workers who are working tirelessly in high risk at different places, especially, cleaning of bio-medical waste, ICU units, etc. amid COVID-19 Pandemic.
A bench led by the Chief Justice Dhirubhai Naranbhai Patel and Justice C. Hari Shankar has directed the central government to file a report on the steps taken by it to ensure workers were protected from COVID-19 and listed the matter for further hearing on May 8.
During the hearing conducted through video conferencing the Additional Solicitor General appearing for the central government informed the court that they have already provided a total number of 3,46,929 N95 masks and 60890 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Kits to the Delhi Government. He also pointed out that, “…there are low risk, moderate risk and high-risk zones/works to be carried out by the Safai Karamcharis, etc.”
ASG further informed the Court that they will file a detailed report within 15 days and also informed the court that various steps have already been taken by the Union of India as envisaged in the guidelines issued by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Court was hearing the petition filed by Harnam Singh through Advocate Mahmood Pracha seeking directions to authorities concerned to ‘provide protective equipment to the sanitation workers’ who have been working ‘tirelessly and selflessly’ during the COVID-19 pandemic, which it said has put the lives of billions of people across the world at risk.
-India Legal Bureau