The nearly fortnight-long fiasco at Kochi Corporation’s solid waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram following the fire outbreak on heaps of plastic waste in March is likely to cost the State exchequer ₹1.14 crore, it has emerged.
This was revealed by the district disaster management department in response to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by RTI activist Raju Vazhakkala. The activist had posed a set of five queries including the itemised total cost incurred for dousing the Brahmapuram fire, whether payment was due to anybody and under which head the payment was made.
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Quoting the Corporation secretary, the RTI authority said that the civic body incurred around ₹90 lakh towards handling the crisis. This was spent on various expenses like the rent and fuel expenses of deploying excavators, floating machines, pumps and motors, transportation charges of the equipment, wages of the operators of the excavators, soil test, setting up temporary resting facility and bio-toilets, light and food.
“We have forwarded a letter to the local self-government department in this regard. To our knowledge, it has been put up before the finance department for sanction,” said mayor M. Anilkumar.
Besides, the crisis inflicted further additional costs. The programme manager of the District Health and Family Welfare Society has claimed ₹11 lakh on account of organising a medical camp for firefighters in Kakkanad, buying medical equipment, and expenses towards arranging accommodation for doctors and related staff.
In addition to this, the District Medical Officer had made a claim of ₹13 lakh towards various medical expenses.
In response to the query on whether payment was still due to anyone and under what overhead the payment was made, the RTI authority said that the said amount was not available under the suitable overhead or account. Hence, a letter demanding the amount had been despatched to the State Government.
Mr. Anilkumar, however, claimed that the payments had already been cleared and that it now needs to be reimbursed by the government.
