Rlys says manual scavenging to stay

According to an internal assessment of the Railway ministry, upgradation of platform tracks at the top 500 stations and controlled discharge toilets in 27 Rajdhanis—these toilets discharge excreta only when the train touches speeds above 30 km/hour, spreading the biodegradable waste along the track away from railway stations—will take another decade.

As of now, only the Lucknow and Amritsar Shatabdis and the two Mumbai Rajdhanis run coaches with controlled-discharge toilets.

The Railways have more than 8,000 stations. Of these, only 6 per cent or some 500 stations are currently earmarked for concrete platform tracks which allow a washable apron system—mechanical water jets—to remove human excreta. But here again, only 60 of the 500 stations figure in the short-term upgradation plan.

There’s no saying when the case of the remaining 94 per cent stations will be considered. The annual allotment in the Railways budget under Passenger Amenities—a portion of which is spent on such upgradation—is just Rs 200 crore. Just upgrading 500 stations with concrete platform tracks will cost an estimated Rs 1100 crore. ‘‘The scale of operations is huge but it is sad that none of the Railway ministers have felt it important to provide funds in the Railway budgets to do away with manual scavenging,’’ said an official in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.