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Govt apathy blamed for sewage leak from trains at RBI bridge
In response to a plea regards nuisance caused by the seepage of sewage from moving trains at the road under bridge connecting Secretariat, High court RBI and beach, the Madras High Court was informed by the Southern Railways that despite grant of tender in April last year to remedy the situation, the Chennai District Collector and Assistant Commissioner traffic are yet to respond to their request to close the particular stretch in the beach road.
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Chennai
The division bench comprising Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad before whom the submission was made suo motu impleaded the District Collector of Chennai and Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), as parties in the plea. The bench also directed the Additional Government pleader to get appropriate directions from the said authorities by July 24.
Earlier, P T Ramkumar appearing for the General Railways submitted that taking note of the inconvenience of the commuters of the road, where dirty water and toilet water pours down, it was decided to replace such shallow type steel girders with pre-stressed concrete slabs/Girders (Bridge No 5-A up & down).
Accordingly, tender was floated and vide order dated April 25, 2018, letter of acceptance has been issued to the contractor to complete the construction within four months i.e., before August 22, 2018. However, traffic arrangements must be made, to enable execution of work on a war-footing.
Based on this, through a letter dated October 31, 2018, Divisional Railway Manager, Chennai Division, had addressed a letter to the Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Chennai, to make necessary traffic arrangements. Similarly, letters dated 21.05.2018 dated 03.10.2018 have also been addressed to the Collector of Chennai, for making necessary arrangements. But till date there has been no reply, the counsel appearing for Railways said.
The issue pertains to a plea moved by advocate N S Sivakumar who claimed that two-wheeler riders, autorickshaws, and pedestrians are scared to cross the railway bride, as it gives a shower of urine and human excreta if they happen to cross it while a train is passing that bridge.
Right to clean environment is a fundamental right flowing from Article 21 of the Constitution as held by the Supreme Court in series of judgments, the plea submitted while seeking to remedy the situation.
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