Pimpri Chinchwad: A contractual labourer died due to suffocation while cleaning a drainage chamber and his colleague fell ill as he went inside to rescue him at Kalewadi here on Wednesday.The deceased, Bharat Davkar, was a resident of Mahatma Phulenagar slum in Pimpri. The other worker, Sanjay Matang, was admitted to a hospital and later discharged.Davkar and Matang had reached Kalewadi around 11.30am after receiving a complaint about the choked drainage. Fire brigade officials said Davkar went inside the drainage and fell unconscious. As Davkar took a long time to come out, Matang went inside to find out what happened to him."Matang also felt suffocated inside. Fortunately, the driver of a jetting machine waiting nearby got a hint of Matang's condition and asked him to come out immediately," a fire brigade official said.Fire brigade personnel brought Davakar out and took him to a hospital, where he was declared dead upon arrival.The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has formed a two-member committee to conduct an inquiry into the incident. "We will take appropriate action once we get the report. The PCMC takes precautions while conducting hazardous work. We are using jet machines to clean the drains," municipal commissioner Shravan Hardikar said.Preliminary information revealed that the contractor's employees had opened the drainage chamber and gone inside to insert the pipe of the jetting machine, he added."Under normal circumstances, they should not have gone inside as only a pipe has to be inserted in the chamber. We have issued written instructions to the ward officers that the contractors must provide their employees with safety equipment," Hardikar added.The civic chief said the authorities will check the footage of CCTVs installed at shops near the spot to find out details.

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