Northern Railways fails to respond to NHRC

The Northern Railway has failed to meet the one week deadline to respond to the National Human Rights Commission on the allegations of highly contaminated drinking water across its zone covering more than 700 stations.
According to a statement released by NHRC today, the Commission has issued a reminder today to the General Manager, Northern Railway to positively respond within a week to its notice in the case registered suo motu on February 28 on the basis of a media report quoting Indian Railway's internal enquiry confirming contamination of drinking water on the Northern Railway stations.
NHRC has observed that the contents of the report, carried on February 27, if true, raise a serious issue of violation of right to health of millions of passengers.

Reportedly, the water, sourced from 800 bore wells by the Northern Railway, is supposed to be treated before reaching passengers. Of the samples tested by the Railway's Medical Department for levels of Coliform Bacteria, which causes many water-borne diseases like Cholera, 100 per cent samples from Lucknow Division, 59 per cent of the samples in the Moradabad Division and 94 per cent samples in the Ambala Division were found to be contaminated, the statement said.
The reason behind this problem is either the absence of water treatment plants or ill-maintenance thereof at these stations. Lucknow and Ambala Divisions do not have any treatment plants, while in Ferozepur and Delhi Divisions, chlorination is outsourced to private companies, but the condition of the plants is extremely unsatisfactory.

"Reportedly, officials, in-charge of the Northern Railway say that the amount of water to be treated is huge and achieving zero impurity is difficult.
"However, when one of the companies responsible for chlorination in Delhi, was questioned about the ill-maintenance of the water treatment plant, the company threatened to sue the concerned officer," the statement said.