"Nobody takes responsibility for the deaths in sewers," sighed activist Bezwada Wilson on hearing of the deaths of four men while cleaning a tank in Vasant Kunj on Saturday.

Calling such deaths 'political murder', Wilson said that he had repeatedly petitioned the lieutenant governor and chief minister of Delhi and the National Human Rights Commission, even the Prime Minister, on the problem, to no avail.

Wilson, one of the founders and national convenor of Safai Karmachari Andolan, had a startling statistic. He pointed out that in the past 100 days, 39 people had died across India while cleaning sewers. "This is not the first incident of the kind, just a part of regular occurrences," he told TOI. "Now Delhi government won't do anything claiming the matter falls under the LG's office. The PM too speaks on all issues but not on this."