Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has approved the proposal to nominate the district magistrates as Responsible Sanitation Authority (RSA) in their respective jurisdiction and to establish Emergency Response Sanitation Units (ERSU) to ensure elimination of hazardous manual cleaning of sewers, septic tanks and drains.

“The proposal of the Urban Development Department of the GNCTD was received at the LG Secretariat on the last week of January 2024 despite the fact that Government of India and the Prime Minister himself had also reviewed the progress made on the issue on 2nd June 2, 2022, and the Administrative Department, GNCTD submitting a status report in this regard,” the LG office said in a communique on Thursday.

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To effectively address the menace of manual scavenging and addressing the needs of one of the most marginalized sections of the society, a Group of Ministers (GoM), set up by the Government of India in its meeting held on 19th February, 2020, had decided that DMs in every district should be designated as the RSA with the role and responsibility clearly defined as per the provisions of “The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation (PEMSR) Act, 2013, it said.

The LG office said further, through an e-mail dated 20th May, 2022, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs informed that that the UT Government was bound by directives of the GoM which stated that each Distinct Magistrate/DC will be nominated as the RSA and there will be an ERSU in each district and an additional ERSU in district which caters to only the sanitation needs of any Municipal Corporation within the district.

It was also informed that Delhi Jal Board (DJB) as “parastatal” can provide its dedicated holding of each type of manpower and machinery earmarked/prioritized for working for this purpose in the territorial jurisdiction of each district separately, it said.

“After receipt of the e-mail dated 20th May, 2022 the UD Department, GNCTD made modification in the notification to nominate DM as RSA and submitted the instant proposal to the then Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in June 2022 which remained with him till February 2023,” the LG office said.

It further said, “The file remained pending for more than a year and a request was made to the current (Delhi) UD Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj on 19th September, 2023, to expedite the matter. After four months, the minister (UD) cleared the proposal on 19th January, and subsequently by the Chief Minister before it reached the Raj Niwas on 24th January.”