Two days after the District Medical Officer issued a 48-hour notice to a construction company to close down a migrant labourers’ camp at Vithura, the camp continues to function. The DMO issued the notice since the camp was being run in extremely unhygienic conditions.
In raids conducted on the migrant labourers’ camps in various parts of the district on Saturday, under the SAFE Thiruvananthapuram initiative, the DMO had ordered closure of the camp as the living conditions were poor and human excreta and sewage were being directed to a rivulet (Makki), which was flowing into Aruvikkara reservoir. (SAFE Thiruvananthapuram intends to make use of the penalising provisions in public health Acts, to make people more accountable for their actions which might pose threat to public health.)
On Tuesday, Health officials who visited the camp found that nothing much had been done to improve the conditions.
The company seemed to have no intention of shifting the labourers and winding up the camp. “The company representative said that they were trying to make a pit into which the sewage could be directed. Then it would not be dumped into the Makki rivulet. They said they did not intend to move the workers. The premises and living conditions in the camps are inhuman, unhygienic and pose a threat to public health. Till these issues are solved, the camp should not be allowed to function,” a health official said.
Two months ago also, the health officer at the Vithura CHC had visited the camp and had warned the company.
