The Indian Railways' age-old toilet disposal system, which lets the refuse flow directly on the tracks, has caused an Ahmedabad resident to make an angry petition to the Gujarat High Court. He has complained of filthy "golden showers" falling on people passing below poorly-maintained railway overbridges in Ahmedabad.
The court on Thursday issued notices to the Western Railways over inconvenience to road users due to the "filthy droppings" from passing trains caused by improper maintenance of the overbridges.
Acting on a public interest litigation filed by Joseph Chelliah, a division bench of Chief Justice SJ Mukhopadhya and Justice Akil Kureshi on Thursday issued notices to the railway authorities seeking to know the steps being taken to ensure proper maintenance of overbridges in Ahmedabad.
The petitioner said that two of the overbridges in the city are not water resistant and filthy droppings, which he termed as "golden showers", fall directly on road users passing under these bridges.
He claimed that the railways had not taken any effective steps to upgrade the open toilet disposal system on the trains. His case was that the Railways was violating the fundamental rights of road users by not updating its century-old unhygienic toilet disposal system on trains.
"Every Indian has the right to live with dignity and neatness, and the current toilet disposal system of trains is violative of our fundamental rights," the petitioner contended. He said he was compelled to approach the high court as the railway authorities did not reply to his letter dated March 29 which requested changes in this system in the larger public interest.
{{/usCountry}}"Every Indian has the right to live with dignity and neatness, and the current toilet disposal system of trains is violative of our fundamental rights," the petitioner contended. He said he was compelled to approach the high court as the railway authorities did not reply to his letter dated March 29 which requested changes in this system in the larger public interest.
{{/usCountry}}After hearing the petitioner, the division bench issued notices to the zonal manager of Western Railways, Mumbai, and the divisional railway manager, Ahmedabad, and posted the next hearing for June 22.