T.N. man dies of asphyxiation while cleaning drain in Vellore

A 55-year-old sanitation worker, who was employed by the Vellore Corporation on a contract basis, died of suffocation after inhaling poisonous gases while cleaning an open sullage drain on Old Bangalore Road near the Old Bus Terminus in Vellore town.

A 55-year-old sanitation worker, who was employed by the Vellore Corporation on a contract basis, died of suffocation after inhaling poisonous gases while cleaning an open sullage drain on Old Bangalore Road near the Old Bus Terminus in Vellore town.

The worker has been identified as M. Murugan, a resident of the town. A father of three children, Murugan had been working with the civic body as a contract worker for over a decade.

After the drain at Makkan junction near the Fort Complex was clogged and caused inundation on the stretch towards the Chennai-Bengaluru Highway (National Highway 44), Murugan and three other contract workers were asked by local corporation officials to unclog the drain for easy discharge of the excess rainwater into the adjacent 9-km-long Nicholson Canal.

At around 5.30 p.m. on Friday, the four workers arrived at the spot with a tractor to upload sludge from the drain once it was desilted. While the other workers were standing around him, Murugan unclogged the open drain, which is around three feet deep and two feet wide.

However, Murugan immediately fainted in the drain.

After alerting the local corporation officials about what happened, the workers rushed him to the Government Medical College Hospital on the outskirts of the town, where doctors declared him dead on arrival.

A case has been registered by the Vellore North police and a probe is underway.