Railways opposes construction of latrines along tracks by Mafia on 11 June, 2013 - 04:01 AM | ||
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Mafia | Railways opposes construction of latrines along tracks on 11 June, 2013 - 04:01 AM | |
New Delhi: Seeking review of the proposed legislation to prevent manual scavenging and open discharge on tracks, railways have expressed its inability to construct community latrines on rail land.The proposed amendments to the Prohibition of Empowerment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Bill, 2012, moved by the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry aims to entrust the responsibility on the national transporter to construct adequate number of community latrines so as to eliminate the practice of open defecation along the tracks. However, Railway Board Chairman Vinay Mittal in a letter to the Law Ministry, has pointed out that construction of latrines along the tracks is not in the domain of railways as it is the responsibility of civic authorities to carry out such a task."Railways function in accordance with the Railways Act, 1989, and it is not within its domain to construct community sanitary latrines which is the lookout of the concerned municipalities or panchayats," Mittal stated in the letter."Railways have the responsibility for public carriage of passengers or goods and have the mandate to execute necessary works for the purpose of operating and maintaining a railway only," he said.The Central Monitoring Committee under Cabinet Secretary has reviewed the implementation of the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Constitution of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act 1993 on May 17. |