Lax officials get it for poor drain works

The first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan on perusal of the affidavit filed by the Municipal Administration and Water supply department, said “Despite modern technology at our command, we continue to go back to archaic method of desilting. We submit that stakeholders and technical expertise is available and there should be a will to find a technical solution.” 

Noting that the issue brooks no more delay keeping in mind the prospect of monsoon in November, the bench said “We thus call upon a meeting of this committee to be held at least till November 2016 to find an immediate solution on a long term basis. The committee would deliberate upon the technical expertise available and the machinery to be acquired to assist in desilting the drains, considering the machines bought at present do not seem to sub-serve the purpose so far as narrower roads are concerned.” 

The directions had come about on a PIL moved by social activist A Narayanan seeking to direct the authorities to protect storm water drains from blockages. He also wanted the state to prohibit human deployment for removing silt. The bench on agreeing with the petitioner that the government was resorting to unscientific methods of desilting, apart from the human angle, said “After considerable ground work done towards deploying modern machines in 2015 there is a step backward now stating that once again, the drains have been de-silted manually with safety gear mechanism for labourers, as progress with the machine was slow and that since these machines are large it could be used only in broader roads is quite surprising.” 

It also held that “The human angle emanated from the fact that though storm water drains have been desilted, such drains actually are a mixture of storm water and sewage, as undisputedly there are illegal sewerage connections. Endeavour has been made to plug these connections, but linked to that, a question arises as to how can unplugging once again be prevented.”

However, the bench listed the case for compliance to November 4.