BEFORE THE HON’BLE HIGH COURT OF KERALA AT ERNAKULAM
W.P.(C) No. 29441 OF 2006-S
George Joseph Themplangad …….Petitioners
Vs.
UOI & Ors. ….…Respondents
COUNTER AFFIDAVIT FILED ON BEHALF OF THE RESPONDENT 2 & 3, ON THE INTERIM PRAYER IN THE WP, AS DIRECTED BY THIS HON’BLE COURT:-
I, Premarethinam, aged 57, S/o. Shri. S. Kuppusamy, presently residing at Chennai, do hereby solemnly affirm and state as follow:-
I am presently working as the Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer (Carriage & Wagon), Mechanical Branch, Southern Railway Headquarters, Chennai and I am filing this affidavit on behalf of the respondent Railway Administration, for which I am competent to do so. This affidavit is filed on behalf of the respondent Railway Administration, to counter the allegations and contentions of the petitioner on the interim prayer in the WP and is without prejudice to the right of the respondents to file detailed counter affidavit in the main Writ Petition, if found necessary. I am conversant with the facts of the case, as disclosed from the relevant records. All allegations and contentions of the Writ Petitioner, are hereby denied, except those that are specifically admitted hereunder. The Petition is devoid of any merit and is liable to be dismissed by this Hon’ble Court. The interim prayer sought in the WP is for a direction to 2nd and 3rd respondents to forthwith manufacture Railway coaches in such a way as to prevent dumping of human waste into the open environment pending disposal of this WP. The Petition is devoid of any merit and is liable to be dismissed by this Hon’ble Court. With regard to the various allegations and contentions raised in the Petition, it is most respectfully submitted as follows.
It is most humbly submitted that Indian Railways is always committed to passenger satisfaction for all its users. Hygienic condition inside the coaches has been an item of priority for Indian Railways and efforts have been made to tackle the problem of open discharge of human excreta and other wastes technologically to a good level of success. They are also equally committed to arrangements being made for an environment friendly and hygienic disposal of refuse from passenger coaches.
It is most humbly further submitted that the discharge of human excreta into the open environment from the toilets of trains in India is least with the intention to spread diseases throughout the length and breadth of the nation. It is owing to the present coach layout & design, as is as so prevalent in many parts of the world, incorporating open discharge of waste from the toilet chutes. In this connection it is pointed out that Indian Railways are committed to arrangements being made for an environment friendly and hygienic disposal of refuse from passenger coaches. Indian Railways have put in a number of efforts to improve the sanitation and hygiene in the Railway coaches and avoid the discharge of human excreta into the open environment from the toilets. The position regarding management of discharge from train toilets is furnished below;
(i) Passengers are requested through notices in train toilets to avoid using toilets at stations. At relatively bigger stations, the discharge from toilets is forced into the nearby drains running parallel to the track by use of water jet machines and other implements etc. Through these drains the discharge is taken to the sewer lines for further treatment/disposal.
(ii) Indian Railways have more than 8000 stations on its systems, which are being progressively provided with enhanced passenger amenities based on their importance. As part of this, concrete washable aprons on platform tracks are provided at important stations where long distance trains stop in the morning hours, to facilitate clearing of nightsoil by washing into side drains and its subsequent discharge away from stations.
(iii) The Ministry of Railways are aware of the need to better manage the discharge from train toilets from the point of view of hygiene and environmental protection and with that in view, the following actions have been taken:-
Technology of controlled discharge toilets has been obtained along with transfer of technology for state-of-art coach manufacture in the country. Discharge from these toilets is controlled through a programmable logic controller, which permits discharge only after the train speed increases beyond a pre-set value and after a certain number of flush cycles having been performed. This arrangement, though not the ultimate from the point of view of environment protection, enables prevention of discharge near bigger stations /densely populated areas as trains generally pass such areas at relatively slow speeds. This toilet design thus prevents direct discharge of waste when a passenger unavoidably uses the train toilet at stations despite the notices requesting him not to do so. So far, these toilets are being fitted only in coaches manufactured to the imported technology and over 300 coaches have been produced so far since 2002-03 when the manufacture of these coaches was started. Like any new design/technology a number of initial teething troubles were experienced with this design of toilets and several modifications/innovations were undertaken over the last 2 to 3 years making this design suitable for operating environment in Indian conditions. Notwithstanding this, all coaches manufactured with the new technology are being fitted with these toilets.
Use of these controlled discharge toilets on coaches still manufactured to the earlier technology requires certain design changes in the toilet systems. These design changes have been identified by the Railway’s Research Design & Standards Organisation (RDSO). Lucknow and are currently under evaluation by the manufacturing units. A standard specification for this design of toilets has been developed by RDSO, Lucknow, for coaches being manufactured to the earlier design. It has been planned to fit approx 1000 such toilets every year at an approximate cost of Rs.20 crores per year.
Further, as had been stated earlier, above mentioned controlled discharge toilets are not the ultimate from the point of view of environment protection as, though they may eliminate/reduce discharge at major stations, they would still discharge in the open when train speed crosses preset limit. Therefore, even further development is required to go in for toilets which either do not discharge on run or discharge only acceptable standard of liquid. This poses a peculiar challenge perhaps not experienced elsewhere in the world in as much as the existing designs of sealed (non-dischargeable type) toilets used predominantly in the civil aviation and to varying degrees in the Railway systems of the developed countries cannot be straightway adopted for application in the Indian Railways for following reasons.
(i) Variations in toilet of Indian population specifically in relation to the excessive use of water, which drastically increases the volume of liquid waste.
(ii) Unparalleled duration of train journeys between successive servicing at terminals which are perhaps not encountered in the civil aviation industry or in trains of railways in developed countries where such toilets are in use.
In view of these, it poses a serious challenge to either find much larger volume of storage of waste before the same can be evacuated at identified terminals or to segregate the liquid waste and treat it in a manner so as to discharge it in a harmless manner, thus reducing the volume of waste to be carried on the train for evacuation at identified terminals.
Since knowledge about such technologies was not available indigenously Ministry of Railways had issued advertisements in September, 2004 requesting manufacturers of toilet systems to submit design parameters of their toilet systems for meeting the challenges of the operating environment on Indian Railways. Details received in response to this advertisement have been studied and it was decided during 2005 to proceed with trials with following two technologies for gaining experience on their suitability for Indian conditions.
(i) Collection of solid and liquid waste in a tank where bacteria cause biological degradation and treatment of separated liquid waste to a level where it can be discharged without harm and reduce solid waste due to degradation by bacteria, this reduced solid waste being evacuated at identified terminals.
(ii) Retention of total waste on the train and its complete evacuation at identified terminals
Accordingly, action was initiated for development of performance specifications of toilets to these two designs to enable procurement of limited quantities of toilets with a view to experiencing their working on one or two trains each for taking a final decision of the design/technology to be adopted on Indian Railways Global development tender for 80 toilets to biodegradation technology at an approximate cost of Rs.1.8 crores was floated in May 2005. This was opened in July 2005. After evaluation of offers by Research, Design and Standards Organisaton (RDSO) of Ministry of Railways, it was found that none of the offers was meeting all technical requirements of the specification. Main issue that needed to be resolved, and in respect of which the offers deviated from the specification, was the permissible quality of effluent discharge from these toilets. This was a gray area even at the stage of preparation of the specification. Hence, Ministry of Rural Development, who had announced the Government’s policy for eliminating open defection by 2012, was approached for specification of the effluent discharge parameters, after continuous follow ups, Ministry of Rural Development replied after about three months that no specific standard is available and advised that Ministry of Railways should approach Ministry of Urban Development (MUD). Accordingly, MUD was approached who advised consultation with the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The Central Pollution Control Board and Ministry of Environment and Forests have also been approached in December, 2005, but their response is awaited. In view of this, technical deviation for the effluent discharge parameters was agreed to for train purpose keeping in view the value of these parameters used elsewhere in the world as informed by tenderers. Technical bids received against this tender have been evaluated. Commercial bids are under finalization. Once the tender is finalized, the successful tenderer will need to make changes in his existing design to suit Indian working conditions and thereafter development and fitment trials of the prototype would be gone through before bulk manufacture and supply is undertaken.
Tender for procurement for the design that involves vacuum suction of waste and its retention in tanks during the journey and final evacuation at terminals has already been floated for filed trials in one complete rake. Based on the experience of limited quantities of toilets of these two designs, a final decision would be taken about technology/design to be adopted for mass application on Indian Railways. Considering the vast differences in the operating environment of such toilets used elsewhere and operating environment in our country, it was also decided to take parallel action of developing indigenous technology. For this purpose a project was included in the “Technology Mission of Railway Safety”. This technology mission is a national Programme to initiate design and develop projects by using modern technologies. It is a part of Indian Railways Corporate Safety Plan 2003-13 presented by the Railway Minister in the Parliament and is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development and Ministry of Railways of Governmetn of India. It also envisages a partnership from the industry to bring it to a successful end. The project is being funded to the extent of 50% by the Human Resource Development, 30% by Ministry of Railways and 20% by Industry partner. This project is being executed by Research, Design & Standards Organisations, Lucknow of Ministry of Railways and Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. The project commenced in August, 2005 with an estimated financial outlay of Rs.2 crores and is likely to be completed by 31-12-2007. The objective of the project is to conceptualize design and indigenously develop working/ready to install environment friendly coach toilet system for Indian Railways. The toilet system is to have the following attributes:-
(i) Convenient to variety users, robust and minimum operation and maintenance complication
(ii) Prevent damage to Railway track and coaches
(iii) Maintain hygiene /sanitary conditions, particularly on the Railway stations.
(iv) Compliance with the environment regulations, standards and practices.
In this project, following milestones have been achieved so far:-
(i) Review of the state of the art and possible approaches.
(ii) Conceptualization of the proposed system.
(iii) Identification of the industry partner.
(iv) Preliminary trials with slid liquid separators.
(v) Fabrication of basic prototype for laboratory and static trials in IIT campus.
It is expected that under this project a prototype toilet would be ready for field trials by 31-12-2006 and limited experience of field trial can be expected towards the end of the year 2007.
In the facts and circumstances mentioned above it may be seen that the Indian Railway have always endeavored to achieved high standards in managing its waste disposal system. Indian Railways have introduced Controlled Discharge Toilet System which retains human waste to avoid discharge at station and discharge it away from station- yard after suitable treatment. This has been introduced along with LHB coaches in the year 2001 and is also planned to provide on other ICF coaches. It may be appreciated that Indian Railways are aware of this problem and have sought the cooperation of the passengers through notices in the passenger coach toilets requesting the passengers not to use the toilets when the train is passing through the stations. A state with 100% literacy rate would certainly appreciate the predicaments and endeavor of the Govt. and the Ministry of Railways in controlling this problem through various measures as stated above.
It is further respectfully submitted that the problem of dumping of human excreta is not an intentional act being followed by the Indian Railways. Every effort is being taken to find a solution to this problem as stated in preceding paragraphs.
It is further respectfully submitted that the statement of Petitioner that the Indian Railway never cared the valuable health of the passengers and neighbors of the Railway tracks is denied. Necessary steps are taken time to time by this organization. The Railways alone cannot make the environment absolutely pure. Co-operation of the passengers and citizens of Indian is essential.
In the circumstances, the Petitioner is not entitled for any of the reliefs sought for in the WP and hence the same is may be dismissed.
All this is true to the best of my knowledge, information and belief.
Dated this the 29th day of December 2006.
Deponent
Solemnly affirmed and signed before me, by the above named deponent, who is known to me, on this the 29th day of December 2006 at Chennai.
BEFORE THE HON’BLE HIGH COURT OF KERALA AT ERNAKULAM
W.P.(C) NO. 29441 OF 2006 - S
George Joseph Themplangad …….Petitioners
Vs.
UOI & Ors. ….…Respondents
COUNTER AFFIDAVIT FILED ON BEHALF OF THE RESPONDENT, ON THE INTERIM PRAYER IN THE WP, AS DIRECTED BY THIS HON’BLE COURT:-
ALEXANDER THOMAS
STANDING COUNSEL (CG-137)-CUM- RETAINER FOR RAILWAYS
HIGH COURT OF KERALA
