Indian Railways Buy 3,350 Trucks of Cow Dung For Rs 42 Crore Every Year

Updated: January 6, 2018 By India.com News DeskEmail

Indian railways (representational image)

New Delhi, January 6: The latest data on bio-toilets released by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India revealed that in last one year nearly 1,99,689 out of 25,000 “bio-toilets” placed in Indian Railways have defects.

Indian Railways will now have to buy 3,350 truckloads of cow dung at Rs 42 crore in 2018 to “recharge” – add bacteria to activate degradation – leaky malfunctioning of “bio-toilets”, IndiaSpend reported.

The data released by the national auditor to Parliament, the Indian Railways has fixed these bio-toilets on 44.8 per cent of trains.

These bio-toilets, which is set beneath the toilet seat, are small-scale sewage-treatment systems. These toilets are formed when Bacteria in a compost chamber digest human excreta and leave behind water and methane.

On the other side, the Railway Ministry defended its stand by saying that the problems of malfunctioning were because of the misuse of toilets by passengers. The ministry said that it is also being “dealt promptly”.

Earlier in December, there were reports that almost two lakh complaints regarding choking, foul smelling and non-functional bio-toilets in trains were received from the public in 2016-2017.

The CAG, in its report on ‘Induction of bio-toilets in passenger coaches in Indian Railways’, has said that out of the 613 trains being handled in 32 coaching depots it audited, 160 trains did not have bio-toilets

With 1,02,792 complaints, choking seemed to be the most common problem for passengers regarding bio-toilets, the report said, followed by complains of foul smell (16,375), non-functional toilets (11,462), non-availability of dustbins (21,181), non-availability of mugs (22,899) and other complaints like ball valve failure and wire ropes (24,980).

The report has said that 1,02,792 cases of choking in 25,080 bio-toilets imply “that one bio-toilet got choked four times in a year during 2016-2017.” During 2015-2016, for 24,675 bio-toilets, 61,088 cases of choking were seen.

“This shows that instances of choking of bio-toilets increased in 2016-2017 and needs to be addressed,” it said.

The report said that 33.89 per cent of the choking cases were noticed in Bengaluru coaching depot in South Western Railway alone, which handles only 1.6 per cent of the total bio-toilets, implying that one bio-toilet got choked 83 times in a year.

The report which is based on audit for the period 2014- 2015-2016-2017 and was submitted in Parliament in December, also provided Railways’ view on the stinking and choking bio-toilets.