Patna: The Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) started de-silting of the drains in the New Capital circle ward on Sunday.

PMC workers removed silt from drains manually on the first day of the drive that was conducted on Station Road, Boring Road, near Patna High Court, Ashiana-Digha road and other places.

In a first, the in-charge sanitary inspectors have been asked to video record the whole de-silting operation. Also, the PMC is getting a pledge form signed by labourers before sending them down manholes for de-silting drives.

"No payment would be made in case the video CD is not made available which should show the de-silting work being carried out in the respective wards. The sanitary inspectors also have been issued instructions to ensure the availability of safety gear for the labourers engaged in the drive," said the executive officer of New Capital circle of the PMC, Shailesh Kumar.

He said during Sunday's drive, the labourers were provided with safety gear such as hand gloves, body harness and safety belts, but oxygen masks were not provided.

Shailesh said they would be provided to the sanitation workers later when they would be removing silt from big drains deeper than 10 feet.

The decision to provide safety gear to the labourers has been taken following the death of two labourers, Deepu Choudhary and Jitendra Paswan, inside a manhole at the Income Tax roundabout last year.

The labourers died of asphyxiation inside the manhole that had not been cleaned for four years.

Shailesh said the vigilance committee of the PMC had been asked to do a ward-wise review of the de-silting drive every day which would be further reviewed weekly by the sanitary inspectors and the executive officer of the circle.

PMC officials said initially silt was being removed from only the small drains.

"The de-silting drive in the big drains would not be carried out manually. We would be using poclain and JCB machines for that. In the New Capital circle that includes the Serpentine Road drain, Mandiri drain and the open drain in Ashiana-Digha, the drive has to be conducted through machines," added Shailesh.

He promised that the de-silting drive would be completed by June before the arrival of monsoon.