Thiruvananthapuram: Mayor Arya Rajendran broke down after being unable to save N Joy, the sanitary worker, who had gone missing while cleaning a canal filled with waste and filth in the state capital.
The mayor's emotional outbreak in front of the Thiruvanathapuram Medical College Hospital mortuary comes amid criticisms about the corporation's inefficiency in clearing drains and pipes in the state capital. Neyyattinkara MLA CK Hareendran comforted the Mayor. "We hoped to save Joy's life even though many hours had passed," she said.

Joy's decomposed body was found in the canal on the Pazhavangadi-Thakaraparambu-Vanchiyoor road by corporation sanitation workers on Monday almost two days after he went missing. The Thiruvanathapuram Corporation had come under severe criticism for the failure to remove the solid waste that has accumulated in the portions of the Amayizhanchan canal that pass through the railway property.

Joy, a temporary cleaning worker employed by a railway contractor, went missing while clearing the waste-filled canal criss-crossing. He and two other workers were engaged in cleaning the Thampanoor part of the canal near the railway station when the water flow increased due to heavy rainfall, sweeping him into a 140-metre-long tunnel below the tracks of the platform at the central railway station.