THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The city corporation on Tuesday slapped a notice and initiated legal action against the Thiruvananthapuram division of the Southern Railways for dumping waste in a private property near Kumarapuram in the state capital.
The special night squad under the civic body caught the violation red-handed during the wee hours of Monday and took the vehicle and the drivers into custody. The corporation has initiated action under sections 336, 340, and 340(B) of the Kerala Municipality Act and has served a seven-day show cause notice on the Railways’ divisional manager.
“This is the second time the Railways have committed such an offence by dumping waste in public places,” Mayor Arya Rajendran told TNIE. “Ideally, they should be setting examples for the public but repeating a severe offence again and again can’t be treated as a mistake. We offered our assistance but they never approached us for any help.” Ever since the death of sanitation worker Joy, the Thiruvananthapuram corporation and the railway division have been at loggerheads over the clean-up of Amayizhanchan Canal.
As per the notice issued by the corporation secretary, the vehicles seized belong to Piyush Agencies, a service provider contracted by the Railways to manage the waste generated at the Kochuveli station.
According to reports, one of the two vehicles seized was laden with unsegregated waste and the subsequent investigation conducted by the corporation health squad found that the agency had recently dumped around 10 loads of unsegregated waste in the private land close to the Kunju Veedu Temple near Kumarapuram.
This is the second time in the past two months the Thiruvananthapuram corporation has slapped notices on Railways authorities for similar violations. On November 25, the corporation secretary had served notices to the Railways for dumping 25 loads of unsegregated waste at the Mohanan Memorial Mini Stadium belonging to the corporation. The civic body had issued a 24-hour notice to remove the waste from the playground.
Responding to the incident, a Railways official said, as per the contract, the agency is supposed to segregate and dispose of the waste scientifically. It is learnt that Piyush Agency had sub-contracted Sunage Ecosystems Ltd – an agency recently blacklisted by the local self-government department for having dumped medical waste in Tamil Nadu.
The Railways official said the Thiruvananthapuram Central station has a full-fledged waste management facility. Around one tonne waste is generated at the Central Station per day, which is being handled scientifically, he said.
“We are depending on an external agency to manage waste generated at Kochuveli. We will retrieve the dumped waste from the site and initiate penal action and recover compensation from the service provider,” the official said. The Material Collection Facility (MCF) at Kochuveli will be ready in a couple of months, the official said. “We have to continue to depend on approved agencies for handling non-biodegradable waste,” the Railways official said.