Mangaluru: In yet another incident that could be a blot on the city’s image, two persons were made to work inside a damaged underground drainage chamber near Hampankatta in Mangaluru on Friday.

Though it’s not clear if the incident amounts to manual scavenging, the workers constructed walls of the chamber even as night soil was flowing in.

Experts said inflow pipes to the damaged UGD chamber should have been diverted before workers entered it. Youth leader Sunil Kumar Bajal noticed the incident near Don Bosco Hall in Court Ward of Mangaluru City Corporation. Sunil told  the road was dug up at the spot a fortnight ago to facilitate the repair of the UGD chamber.”It’s inhuman to make workers enter the UGD chamber when night soil is flowing in. People should wake up against such inhuman acts and raise their voice against it,” Sunil said.

When contacted, Mangaluru City South MLA J R Lobo told : “They should block the inflow and make the chamber dry before starting any such work. They’re not supposed to take up work when inflow pipes are intact. It’s wrong and I don’t know why they did it. Everywhere it is banned. I’ll talk to the authorities concerned,” Lobo said.

A person was made to enter a drain chamber and clear it by lifting the night soil using plastic bucket at Bunder in the city. The incident occurred even though manual scavenging is a violation under the provisions of Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993. The social welfare department has taken note of the incident and officials will submit a report to the government.