KOCHI: Coming down heavily on the inaction of the Kochi corporation’s health department for not effectively monitoring the dumping of waste, the Kerala High Court has directed the district collector and the corporation secretary to take stringent action against hotels for dumping untreated waste into the drainage. The court also directed to file a report in this regard.
Justice Devan Ramachandran issued the directive following a report of the amicus curiae that the blockage in the already cleaned area is due to waste dumping and untreated hotel waste. The court asked why the corporation is not initiating action against the hotels that violate the law.
The health officer of the corporation has a key role to play in all these aspects. The officer cannot remain a mute spectator even when persons and entities dump waste and garbage in public places and into drains. Hence, the officer should keep a vigil on the entire area and file a report before the court.
The court said it does not know how long it will have to monitor the Kochi corporation and other stakeholders to ensure the basic requirement that the citizens of the city are not submerged every monsoon. The pre-monsoon cleaning was done almost satisfactorily which is evident from the fact that the city did not experience any large-scale flooding. However, a couple of months down the line, we are virtually back to square one. On account of two or three days of rains recently, there was large-scale inundation.
The situation is extremely tragic and really shows that there are systemic failures which are yet to be rectified, said the court. The amicus curiae pointed out that various railway culverts get blocked and clogged within a few weeks after it is jetted or cleaned and the situation is worst on MG Road area and South railway station premises where the dumping of waste including food goes unnoticed and unregulated.
He also pointed out that the slabs of the footpath on MG Road that were removed for cleaning earlier have not been restored, and cause danger to pedestrians, particularly during monsoon season. The Central government submitted that it will ensure that all railway culverts are jetted and cleaned. The court also directed the PWD to commence the work on the reconstruction of the drains and restoration of the footpath on MG Road.