The smoldering garbage hills at Kochi’s Brahmapuram solid waste management plant have emerged as a consequential political battleground between the government and the opposition parties.
Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have slammed the government for its “neglect and mishandling” of legacy waste accumulated at the site “since 2016”.
They have also accused the government of nepotism and corruption in awarding the waste management contract to “politically connected” business persons.
The purported failure of the government to douse the fire and contain its environmental and public health fallout had Kochi residents rallying for environmental justice, prompting a High Court intervention that did not augur well for the ruling front’s public image.
Large swathes of the densely populated city are perennially flood-prone and often deprived of piped water during summer.
It seemed not lost on Congress and BJP that the population was at the end of its tether with the toxic fumes from slow-burning plastic adding to their woes.
Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan accused the government of lying in Assembly about the environmental and public health fallout of the Brahmapuram fire.
He said the administration presented a false narrative in the House by arguing that the fire had caused no serious public health emergency.
However, ground reality testified otherwise. Hospital intake of patients with respiratory distress has trebled in Kochi in the past week. Senior citizens and children were the most vulnerable.
The health, municipal, and disaster management mechanisms have dismally failed the people. He said sabotage engineered by some business interests vying for the lucrative urban solid waste management contract had ignited the fire.
“The Brahmapuram fire reeked of corruption, and the government had wilfully failed to identify the perpetrators”, he said.
BJP State president K. Surendran said the enforcement of environmental regulations slacked after the government contracted two politically connected contractors for managing waste, allegedly close relatives of CPI(M) and Congress leaders, respectively. The monitoring agencies looked the other way, even as waste kept piling at the site, and contractors were unwilling to process it to squeeze profits.
Mr. Surendran demanded a CBI inquiry into the politically influential business cartel that betrayed the public trust and imperilled community health.
