Kerala HC initiates suo moto writ petition in Brahmapuram fire incident

Kochi: The Kerala High Court has initiated a suo motu writ petition for conducting an inquiry into the fire incident at the Brahmapuram waste treatment plant here.

The matter will be considered on Tuesday by the Division Bench comprising Justice K. Vinod Chandran and Justice C. Jayachandran.

“The repeated incidents of fire at the yard remain a cause of concern for local residents, and as per reports, plastic waste piled up at Kochi Corporation’s solid waste treatment plant has gone up in smoke without fail every year since 2019. Despite repeated episodes, the authorities have not been able to take concrete action to check such mishaps,” the writ petition reads.

The fire broke out at the solid waste treatment plant of the corporation around 4.30 pm on March 2. The thick smoke that emanated from the charred plastic heaps at the waste dumping yard continued to spread over large areas for the fifth consecutive day, choking the city and its suburbs.

The residents have been complaining of health issues such as eye burns, cough and breathlessness due to the thick smoke.

The fire has not been fully doused despite strenuous efforts by the authorities for the past few days despite their assurances of bringing it under control.

The Indian Navy’s helicopters with fire and rescue officials are striving hard at Brahmapuram to extinguish the fire.

The proceedings were initiated based on the letter sent by Justice Devan Ramachandran. The Chief Justice then directed the initiation of a suo motu writ petition in the matter.

The petition was filed by a resident from Vyttila, and sought a directive to the state government to frame necessary welfare schemes to deal with health hazards caused to the general public from the foul smell coming from the smoldering waste.

The petitioner pointed out that every year fire would break out at the plant and the corporation would spend crores of rupees for extinguishing it and solving the resultant health hazards for the people, reports ThePrint.

The State government and the corporation had experimented different methods to remove the huge pile of waste dumped at the plant. However, no proper solution has been found so far.

There were allegations that the waste was set on fire deliberately.

The petitioner pointed out that despite various incidents of fire breakout at the plant, the state Pollution Control Board (PCB) had not conducted a property study as to the cause of the fires.

The government had on Saturday held a meeting to explore different options available to extinguish the ongoing fire at the dumping yard.

Another meeting was held on Sunday at Kochi by the state Health Minister Veena George and Law and Industries Minister P Rajeev with Ernakulam District Administration officials on this matter.

Meanwhile, the Congress workers marched to the Kochi Corporation Office on Monday as part of the protest seeking a High Court-monitored probe into the fire incident.