The police probe into the fire breakout at the Kochi Corporation’s solid waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram has so far made little headway since it was announced by the Chief Secretary at a review meeting held last Saturday.
The probe was ordered in the wake of widespread circulation of conspiracy and sabotage theories behind the fire breakout, which had become almost an annual ritual at least since 2019.
Though a team led by the Thrikkakara Assistant Commissioner of Police has been assigned to conduct the probe, it has made little progress with no case being registered. The statements of a few ground-level workers of various agencies, including the Kochi Corporation, alone have been recorded till now. Police sources attributed it to the prevailing situation at the plant and the priority for getting it under control.
“The probe calls for visiting the site for inspection and finding out the possible points where the fire broke out initially. But that is not possible at the moment as it will interfere with the work of the agencies engaged in firefighting,” said a senior police officer.
Sources said that preliminary measures to collect information without affecting the priority area of firefighting but which would help with the investigation once it was launched in full steam were being focused on now.
But the Congress, which is the opposition party in the corporation, seems far from impressed. “They [probe team] have hardly done anything meaningful. They could have at least summoned the contractors and collected their statements. Also, the probe seems to be solely into the cause of the fire breakout, while our demand is that the conspiracy and corruption involved in the fire and the award of waste management contract by the corporation be comprehensively investigated,” said District Congress Committee president Mohammed Shiyas.
Dissatisfied with the probe, he lodged a complaint with the State Police Chief on Thursday. The complaint alleged mystery behind the fire and demanded registration of criminal case against the Mayor, Corporation Secretary, and the owner of Zonta Infratech, the company that was awarded contract for biomining at the Brahmapuram plant.
The complaint dubbed the fire as a man-made tragedy and accused the corporation and the district administration of having failed to do anything to protect people from the toxic smoke.
