Coimbatore : AITUC on Wednesday demanded that the Government should arrange Rs.20 lakh as compensation to the family of siblings, who were asphyxiated to death while cleaning a septic tank in the city.

The officer bearers of Tirunagar Residents Welfare Association did not take proper care while asking the workers to clean the tank and there was no protection gear provided to the workers, AITUC Workers Union secretary N Selvaraj said in a statement here.

Murugan and Pandidurai were suffocated to death, after inhaling poisonous gas while cleaning the tank in Singanallur area last evening.

Urging the government to prevail upon the association to pay Rs.10 lakh each to the workers’ families, Selvaraj said that the Government should also pay Rs.10 lakh as solatium to the bereaved family.

He also wanted a case to be registered against the association under section 304 of IPC (Punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder), on those engaging workers without giving proper safety device, despite knowing the risk during the cleaning.