High official rushed to Pune to report on sanitation workers' deaths

New Delhi, Oct 19 (UNI) The Union government has sent a one-man fact finding mission to Pune to look into the high incidence of death among sanitation workers of the city Municipal Corporation.

Jt Secretary in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Arbind Prasad who is visiting Pune today, will report back to Minister Meira Kumar on Monday, a Ministry source said.

Earlier, Ms Kumar had written a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh urging him to look into the matter.

Her letter followed reports in a section of the Press that as many as 227 sanitation workers of Pune Municipal Corporation had died in the last 30 months.

She asked Mr Deshmukh to pay special attention to the health needs of the workers.

''In addition to equipping them with necessary protective gears to carry out their work, it is also desirable to introduce a health insurance scheme,'' she said.

UNI