The victim sanitary staff, P. Narasingha was allegedly called by some JICA employees to do some work, assuring payment. He was later engaged to clean and desilt an open drain under the ongoing box-drain project at Barapathar area near Buxi Bazar. While carrying out the job, he fell into the drain and died.

Demanding adequate compensation and justice, the family members staged a sit-in on Thursday.

It is to be noted here that the Wednesday incident was the second such incident involving open drains in the city in the past four days. On July 15, a 21-year-old lost his life after falling into an open drain at Jhola Sahi in Cuttack.

The deceased, identified as Rahul hailed from Rajasthan and he had come to Cuttack to meet his relatives. He was on his way to a tea shop when the mishap occurred.