Minister for local self governments M B Rajesh on Monday laid the blame for what happened to sanitation worker N Joy squarely on Southern Railways (SR). The minister said that the state government had done all that it could to tackle the waste problem in the railway premises but the SR had not kept its side of the bargain.
Referring to the criticism of the government following the tragedy, the minister said that there were attempts to saddle the government with responsibilities it did not have. Rajesh repeatedly described the tragedy as having taken place "in land under the control of the Railways".
The minister's argument was that Railways alone had the obligation to deal with waste within its territory. He prefaced his argument by saying that everyone, right from the citizen to the government and the Railways, should bear the guilt of the garbage that had piled up along the Amayizhanjan canal and the consequent tragedy. "The waste did not materialise out of thin air," Rajesh said.
Even while conceding that there was collective responsibility, the minister said he wanted to clarify certain issues related to Joy's death. "Neither the Corporation nor the government can do anything on Railway land. We had done it once but after that the Railways had invoked the Railway Act to prevent anybody else from doing anything, including waste removal, within its premises," the minister said.
He said the Union Railway Ministry itself had issued a circular in 2011 saying that waste treatment within its premises was its duty. "Clearly, they themselves had acknowledged that waste disposal is their obligation," the minister said.
On July 14, the day after Joy went missing, the SR had officially taken the stand that waste removal even from within its property was the responsibility of the Corporation. Nonetheless, the SR also conceded that there was a running dispute about the agency responsible for waste removal within railway land, whether it is the Railways or the City Corporation.
The LSG minister said that the state government's only role was to make sure that the SR carried out its obligations. "And we had intervened multiple times, contrary to the claims made by the opposition leader (V D Satheesan) that the government had done nothing," Rajesh said.
The minister said the SR had consistently been indifferent to the government's attempts to tackle the garbage crisis in railway land. He said additional chief secretary Sarada Muraleedharan (LSG) had written to the divisional railway managers (DRMs) of Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram railway divisions seeking their support early in January. "The Palakkad divisional manger responded a month late. The Thiruvananthapuram divisional managr did not even bother to respond," he said.
Later, in April this year, the additional chief secretary invited both the DRMs for a meeting. Both of them kept away. "Instead two junior officers were sent. But the government was represented in the meeting by top IAS officers," the minister said.
The minutes of the meeting was critical of the non-attendance of the DRMs. The meeting had also drawn up 20 actionable points for the SR to implement.
The additional chief secretary called for two more meetings, on May 5 and 17. Both went unheeded. "I called the Mayor and the Corporation secretary to my office and I myself had directed them to inform the Railways that prosecution proceedings would be initiated and fine would be imposed if a reply was not given in a week," the minister said. "This was how, the Railways floated a tender for waste removal and a contractor was picked," the minister said.
He said a probe was required to find out whether the workers appointed by the contractor, including Joy, were provided adequate safety equipment before they were asked to go down the tunnels to remove waste.
The minister said that the non-cooperative attitude of the Railways had forced the Corporation secretary to go directly to Kochu Veli station and ask the Railway authorities to immediately remove waste from the dumping yard. The secretary had issued a notice on May 23 but it was ignored. The minister showed pictures of the Kochu Veli yard filled with waste. Mayor Arya Rajendran, who was also present, said the situation remained the same even now. She said she had the latest pictures of the Kochu Veli yard.
The minister said that the High Court had as recently as July 6 called the Railways a "bulk waste generator". Here is what the HC said in its order on July 6, as quoted by the minister. "Most of the plastic waste that is found through the length and breadth of the railway track appears to be from the trains, requiring the railways to be regarded as a bulk waste generator. Under the Solid Waste Management Rules, the Railways have a responsibility to prevent such waste from being deposited on railway sidings and other properties."
