• Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura 

Agartala, July 14, 2022 : Three workers of Tripura’s Damdama in Sabroom sub-division under the southern district died of asphyxia on Wednesday, while cleaning an abandoned sceptic tank while another is undergoing treatment.

Local populace of Damdama said that the owner did not use the sceptic tank for a long time and to make it reusable, four workers were hired for cleaning it. The four workers – Abdul Kalam Sheikh (29), Saidul Islam (19) both are residents of Dhubri in Assam, and Bhajan Singh (40) and Ratan Dey (28) of Sabroom.

At first, one of them entered the tank and fell unconscious. The other three workers entered the tank to rescue the first person but three of them failed to survive due to the toxic air and lack of oxygen. Luckily, one of them succeed to escape somehow from the tank, but he is in critical condition.

Immediately, the fire brigade officials were informed, personnel reached the spot and rescued the workers. After shifting to Sabroom sub-divisional hospital, attending doctors declared three of them ‘brought dead’. The deceased persons are- Abdul, Saidul of Assam and Bhajan of Tripura.

Speaking on the issue, the Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), Sabroom – Salpa Kumar Jamatia said, “The workers were hired by policemen Supradeep Dey for cleaning the sceptic tank at his home.”

On being asked whether the workers used sceptic tank, SDPO said “Primary reports revealed that the workers did not used any safety gears and none of the family members were in the house of Supradeep.”

Sabroom SDM Devdas Debbarma noted that “The incident was first spotted by the locals and alarm was raised. The police is doing their job.”