Following reports in mid-day about the civic body not providing proper safety gear to its workers who clean manholes, officials from Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have given assurance that they will implement changes shortly. They have stated that they will issue a circular to all their 24 wards to ensure that safety gears reach the workers henceforth.

In 2006, the Bombay High Court gave out a directive to the BMC to provide safety gear to its conservancy staff, especially the ones cleaning manholes. The Supreme Court had also issued similar directives in 2011 and asked employers to not treat manhole workers as “mechanical robots”. But the BMC had failed to do so.