Sanitation Worker Swept To Death While Cleaning Aamayizhanchan Canal: Kerala High Court Says Incident Should Serve As An Eye-Opener

Justice Devan Ramachandran observed that what happened in Trivandrum should act as an eye-opener. The Court remarked that the situation in Kochi is better than that in Trivandrum because the Court has been passing orders in this regard for last 5-6 years. This Court added that this is very evident from the fact that the cleaning before this monsoon was not done until orders were passed by the Court. The Court said that the Court have not dealt with the issue in Trivandrum as no petition in this regard is before the Court.

Another bench of the High Court had ordered the Railways and Corporation to formulate a plan on cleaning the Aamayizhanchan canal after the tragic incident.

The Court in this case observed that unlike in Trivandrum, culverts in Kochi are cleaned mechanically and not manually. The culverts are jetted with high-speed water and a sucker-cum-jetting machine is used.

The Court especially remarked on the cleaning of the Thevara- Perandoor Canal. The Court said that the canal is the 'bloodline of the city' and if the canal is blocked, the whole city will be submerged. There have been substantial efforts to clean the canal for the last 5 – 6 years as the court has been passing orders in this regard.

The Court observed that recently the Railways co-operated with the High-Level Committee constituted by the Court and most of the culverts were jetted by them. However, after the cleaning, the resultant debris removed is kept on the banks. The Court observed that this will fall back into the canal.

The Court also said that the culture of the citizens should change. When they discard any waste in public spaces, it eventually ends up in the drainage system. The Court said that dumping of garbage in the public should be heavily penalised. As per the orders of the Court, the Government had made an order in November 2019 banning the dumping of garbage and draining of sewage into the Thevara-Perandoor canal. The Court ordered that the Government and Corporation should undertake periodic inspections to see that citizens are not violating its order and dumping waste into the canal.

The Court has been monitoring the state of canals and culverts in Kochi to prevent flooding in Kochi during and after the rain.

The matter is next posted on the 31^st of July.

Case Title: Treasa K. J. v State of Kerala

Case No: WP(C) 23911/ 2018

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