Railway failed to submit the action plan on contaminated water supply

NEW DELHI: The case of the contaminated water supply by the Indian Railways is getting curioser. Failing to meet the 10-day deadline set by the Delhi High Court on submission of an action plan on improving water supply at stations and railway colonies, the court on Thursday, 1st November 2018 directed the national transporter to file a second affidavit stating reasons why it had failed to submit the action plan.

The Railways, in response to a pending Public Interest Litigation (PIL), has admitted that poor quality water is being supplied at stations and railway colonies and that approximately half of the chlorination plants set up by the national transporter are dysfunctional. Therefore, what stops the organisation from submitting an action plan? Is it that the Railways are reluctant to acknowledge that, for the past decades, a public health disaster could have been caused because of the quality of water the organisation has been supplying?