Jaipur, May 22: Three workers died after they inhaled a toxic gas while cleaning a septic tank at a woollen mill in Karani Industrial Area in Bikaner on Thursday, police said.
The workers were called to clean the tank filled with wastewater containing chemicals which are used in thread processing at the mill, they said.
“One of the workers entered the tank first. When he did not respond for a long time, the other two went in after him. All three were overcome by toxic fumes and lost consciousness,” a senior police official said.
Other employees pulled the workers out and rushed them to PBM Hospital in Bikaner, where doctors declared them brought dead. Initial findings suggest exposure to high levels of carbon dioxide or some other hazardous gas inside the tank, police said.
The victims were identified as Sagar, Anil, and Ganesh Karani, all residents of Shivbari area of Bikaner.
Reacting to the incident, Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra said this is not an accident but an “institutional murder”.
Dotasra also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in Bikaner on Thursday to address a public meeting, over the incident.
“It was expected that you (PM Modi) would say a few words of condolence to the families of the deceased workers. But neither did you express condolences nor did the state BJP government take responsibility for it,” Dotasra said in a post on X.
He said that the government should investigate this incident and take strict action against the culprits, and demanded adequate compensation to the families of the deceased.(PTI)
