THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A sanitation worker went missing while cleaning the Amayizhanchan canal near the Thiruvananthapuram Central railway station on Saturday. Despite hours-long search involving scuba divers, he could not be traced even late into the night.
Joy, 42, and three others were at work on the canal stretch at Thampanoor, where a large quantity of garbage had accumulated, when he was caught in the strong currents around noon. Hailing from Marayamuttom in the state capital, Joy was hired by a contractor assigned with the canal cleaning.
The huge quantity of garbage deposits in the canal posed difficulty to the rescue operations. Fire and Rescue Services personnel and corporation workers removed large pile of garbage using nets to facilitate the search operation. Fellow workers said Joy was caught in the heavy current following rain. “Stormwater gushed through the canal and he lost control and fell into the water,” a worker said.
Min Sivankutty blames Railways for accident
“Hearing his screams, we dropped a rope into the canal but in vain,” said a worker. The portion where Joy is suspected to be trapped is a tunnel-like structure, inside which the lighting is poor.
Also, the garbage impeded rescue workers’ movement. The scuba diving team could move only to about 30 metres into the tunnel.
Now, the plan is to clear the waste completely to find him. Bandicoot, the robotic scavenger developed by Technopark-based startup Genrobotics, has also been pressed into operation.
The incident has triggered a political blame game. Education Minister V Sivankutty has asked the district collector to submit a report on the incident. He blamed the railway authorities for the accident. “The Railways never allows the state government or the city corporation to clean the canal portion under its custody. Railway authorities did not visit the spot after the accident or participate in the search operation,” he said in a statement.
Sivankutty alleged that the railway authorities did not cooperate with the corporation’s efforts to clean up the canal during his tenure as mayor. “Several meetings were convened to discuss remedies for waterlogging in Thampanoor and cleaning the canal. But railway authorities took a negative stand,” he said.
Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor said the accident happened because of the irresponsible functioning of the corporation.
“The mayor’s move to absolve from responsibility by blaming Railways is condemnable. If railway authorities were non-cooperative, the corporation should have alerted central and state governments and people’s representatives earlier,” he said.
Meanwhile, BJP district president V V Rajesh said the corporation’s failure in waste management resulted in the accident. “The mayor should be replaced. The district administration should take over the sanitation works from the corporation,” he said.
Congress district president Palode Ravi slammed the district administration and city corporation for not using advanced technology and equipment to remove the waste. “The fact that the worker could not be traced even after 10 hours shows that the rescue operations are not conducted seriously. The chief minister should intervene in the issue,” he said.