Staff Reporter :
The High Court (HC) on Tuesday summoned the Managing Director (MD) of Dhaka WASA and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) to explain their position regarding the death of a person after falling into an unprotected box culvert in the city on Monday.
They will have to appear in the High Court on March 19.
The HC also issued a rule asking the government to explain as to why they should not be held responsible for the death of the person falling into the unprotected box culvert.
In the rule, the court also asked them to show cause as to why they keeping of the box culvert unprotected should not be treated as their negligence and, as such, why a criminal case should not be filed against them?
The court also asked the respondents to show cause as to why they should not be directed to compensate the victim’s family.
The Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD) Secretary, DMP commissioner, Dhaka WASA MD, CEO of DSCC and Chief Engineer of Drainage and Sewerage of Paltan area and the OC of Paltan Police Station have been made respondents to the rule.
The HC bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice Mohammad Ullah passed the order and issued the rule as Suo Moto after a report was published in a Bangla daily yesterday.
The report said that a middle-aged man died after he had fallen into an uncovered box culvert in the capital’s Paltan area on Monday evening.
His identity could not be known immediately, said Paltan Police Station Officer-in-Charge Rafiqul Islam.
Fire service divers rescued him unconscious around 7:20pm and took him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where he was declared dead.
Dhaka South City Corporation Acting Executive Engineer Kazi Borhan Uddin said it was a manhole of a box culvert of Dhaka WASA which was being cleaned.
