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DRDO lab up in arms against scientist’s transfer

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The employees of the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), which is regarded as one of the most distinguished labs of the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), are up in arms against what they have called arbitrary transfer.

By ABHINANDAN MISHRA | New Delhi | 28 January, 2018 Sunday Guardian

The employees of the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), which is regarded as one of the most distinguished labs of the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), are up in arms against what they have called arbitrary transfer of a scientist who last year was named the “best lab scientist of DRDO”.

According to ADE officials, the said scientist, who has been working with the DRDO for 30 years, is being victimised for not agreeing with his seniors who wanted materials for a project to be procured from a particular company, despite the said company not matching the requirements of the project.

On 16 January 2018, on the ground of “public interest”, A.P.V.S. Prasad, “scientist-G”, who was made the project director of the coveted RUSTOM-II UAV programme of the DRDO in 2015, was moved out of the ADE to another DRDO lab in Bangalore without any notice and without taking the permission from his director.

However, official sources said that Prasad was being pressurised to give his permission to procure products for the UAV programme from a company whose product did not match the requirements of the project and when he did not relent, he was transferred.

Prasad has been credited with making sure that the much delayed India’s UAV programme got the needed push. Within two years of Prasad taking over the project, RUSTOM-II completed its maiden flight, earning him the best DRDO scientist award in 2017. An angry employees’ union of the ADE has now approached Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to intervene in the matter. Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, S. Narayanappa, who is president of the ADE civilian employees’ union, said that discriminatory transfers like this affect the morale of the scientists.

“I have been trying to speak to Dr S. Christopher (chairman of DRDO) on this issue but he is not taking my calls or responding to our messages. It was due to this that we were forced to approach the Defence Minister directly. Prasad is a very capable scientist which is clear from the work that he has done. His transfer, without taking even his director into confidence, is shocking. We are still awaiting a response from the Defence Minister. You can just imagine the kind of damage these kinds of things do to an official’s morale. He was offered multiple employment opportunities from various private corporate entities to head their division but he rejected them all,” Narayanappa said.

Drdo

DRDO has much to answer for its poor performance

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India has been unable to increase its self-reliance capability despite taking several steps.

By Dinesh Kumar | Chandigarh | 21 January, 2018 – Sunday Gaurdian
On paper the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) comes across as formidable. It is currently engaged in about 70 projects that include making almost every major conventional weapon system and platform that major military powers are already manufacturing. From rifles and machine guns to tanks, fighter aircraft, airborne warning and control system, aircraft carrier and a wide array of missiles—surface-to-air, surface-to-surface and sub surface. In reality, the DRDO has much to answer for its performance.

The DRDO, entrusted with developing weapon systems for India’s defence requirement, is critical for ensuring a high degree of self-reliance. Its huge establishment comprises a partnership with over 40 academic institutions, 15 national science and technology agencies, 50 public sector undertakings including the nine defence public sector units, the 40 ordnance factories and the over 250 private sector industries. By 2008, an estimated 1,500 small and medium enterprises were engaged in supplying about 20% to 25% of defence components to defence firms.

Notwithstanding, however, India’s self-reliance continues to hover at 30% to 35% despite a series of measures taken by the government that has resulted in India continuing to remain overly import dependent for its defence requirements. India has been unable to increase its self-reliance capability from the current 30% to 35% despite a series of measures it has taken in the last two-and-a-half decades in particular. Much of even the existing self-reliance capability is based on licence manufacture and transfer of technology by foreign state-owned or private companies. What is more, the government itself has expressed doubts about the country’s capability to even develop core technologies in reports prepared by the parliamentary standing committee on defence.

The harsh reality is that India’s state-owned defence industry has been unable to even develop a rifle, let alone a tank or an aircraft engine. The DRDO has consistently been shifting the timeline for all projects, ranging from rifles to aircraft. Furthermore, the DRDO has been unable to successfully complete a single major project except for a few missile systems and the nuclear powered submarine, although the latter has several shortcomings in capability. The procurement process continues to be time consuming and the private industry remains mired in bureaucratic processes. Most of the private industry’s involvement currently is low scale and focused on making sub systems. It is yet to graduate to making complete weapon systems or highly sophisticated technologies as is the case with major defence companies in the US and Europe.

India’s mission to increase self-dependency for defence equipment to 70% remains a dream. In 1992, following the breakup of the Soviet Union, which had been India’s main source of weapons supply, catering to 70% of the country’s defence requirements, a defence ministry “Self Reliance Review Committee” conceived “a ten-year plan for Self-Reliance in Defence Systems”, which, starting from 1995, was aimed at increasing India’s self-reliance index to 70% by 2005. The defence ministry has now shifted its deadline to attain about 70% self-reliance by over two decades to 2027. But as of now, this seems unlikely in the next ten years.

Efforts of successive governments have failed despite two unprecedented decisions that were specifically aimed at facilitating the self-reliance process—(a) opening of the military-industrial complex to Indian private sector participation up to hundred per cent, and (b) opening up to foreign direct investment (FDI) permissible up to 26%, which was subsequently increased to 49% in 2014 and 100% in 2016.

The present government’s latest emphasis on “Make in India” is undoubtedly noble, but seemingly idealistic. It remains to be seen whether “Make in India” will translate into “Made in India” or remain “Assemble in India”, without intellectual property rights and design control. Perhaps there is wisdom in the advice of David Gross, a Nobel Laureate in Physics, who during a visit to India in January 2016 advised that in order to “Make in India”, the country should focus on first “Discover in India”, followed immediately by “Invent in India”, before it embarks on “Make in India”. But this seems unlikely, considering India’s inflexible, irrational and outdated bureaucracy and the fact that India overall has been spending a paltry 0.9% of its GDP on research and development, compared to 2.1% by China, 2.7% by the United States and 4.4% by South Korea.

India’s record of producing and exporting weapon systems is extremely modest. For example, India’s defence exports averaged a meagre US$88 million a year between 2006-07 and 2008-09, which marginally rose to $174 million in 2013-14 and $330 million in 2016. At a cursory level, the list of countries that have been importing Indian defence equipment is impressive, as it also includes the United States, United Kingdom and Russia. But a study of the equipment reveals that it is very rudimentary—flight control panels, forging equipment and electronic assemblies to the US, transmitting tubes to the UK and, to Russia, some spares and services for the Russian origin MiG-29 and Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraft. None of these are critical technologies or anywhere close to a complete weapon system or a weapon platform.

In contrast, even while China is a major importer of defence hardware, it is at the same time also self-sufficient in certain key military technologies along with being a major weapons exporter. It was the fifth largest exporter of defence equipment to developing countries between 2000 and 2007, the third largest global supplier between 2010 and 2014 following an arms export increase by 143% and ranked fourth between 2008 and 2015 in arms transfer agreements with developing nations. China’s defence exports to developing countries averaged over $3 billion annually between 2011 and 2014, more specifically $2.5 billion in 2007, $2.2 billion in 2008, $3 billion in 2009, $1.9 billion in 2010, $3.2 billion in 2011, $3.4 billion in 2012, $4.2 billion in 2013 and $3.2 billion in 2014 and $ 6 billion in 2015.

India’s state-owned military industrial complex is characterised by flaws at several levels. Internal criticism against the military-industrial complex range from the way the DRDO is conceptualised and structured, its tendency to over reach, technological limitations and incapability; coordination problems with, and changing specifications by, the users, the myriad responsibilities of the head of the DRDO, the continuing limited involvement of the private sector and the predominant role of generalist bureaucrats with no expertise in defence. Moreover, the bureaucratisation of Indian science has created a scientific-work environment with features comprising caution, rules, reviews, screenings, scrutinies, committees, controls, centralisation, delays, doubts, indecision, inaction, suspicion, friction, and less communication.

Until India increases its self-dependence for its defence requirements, India’s import bill is only expected to rise, making it a foreign-made Indian armed force. But such overdependence has come at a high price for the country and the armed forces, which for the last two-and-a-half decades has been battling depleting force levels and antiquity of weapon systems.

The author is a defence analyst

Drdo

Why Indian Railways Need To Buy 3,350 Truckloads Of Cow Dung For Rs 42 Cr

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Srinand Jha, January 6, 2018- IndiaSpend

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Indian Railways need to buy 3,350 truckloads of cow dung at Rs 42 crore in 2018 to “recharge”–add bacteria to activate degradation–leaky, malfunctioning ‘bio-toilets’ that it has fitted on 44.8% of trains and hopes to expand to all trains by 2018, according to IndiaSpend projections of data released by the national auditor to Parliament.

Bio-toilets are small-scale sewage-treatment systems beneath the toilet seat: Bacteria in a compost chamber digest human excreta, leaving behind water and methane. That’s how they were supposed to work.

The Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report on these bio-toilets echoes the findings of our November 2017 investigation into their widespread malfunctioning: The CAG found 199,689 defects in 25,000 toilets.

Responding to the CAG findings, the railway ministry said its criticism was “not correct” and that “some problems of choking were occurring on account of misuse of toilets by passengers”. An official note from December 20, 2017, said: “These issues are being dealt with promptly.”

“By November 2011, the performance issues of each design of bio-toilets were clearly showing up,” the note said. “Therefore, the ministry did not wait until the end of the trial period to make the decision (to order the procurement of bio-toilets from private manufacturers).”

Our November 2017 story quoted studies from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and IIT Kanpur that said the bio-toilets were no better than “septic tanks” and the water they let out no better than “raw sewage”.

Each bio-toilet requires 60 litres–or three large bucketfuls–of inoculum, a mix of cow dung and water, according to the December 19, 2017, CAG report. This inoculum begins the process of breaking down 3,980 tons of human excreta that is released untreated by trains on rail tracks nationwide every day.

The bio-toilets originally used a bacterium found in Antarctica by a defence scientist, who cultured it in 2005 and 10 years later, got a patent on its use. Over seven years to 2017, 97,761 such toilets were fitted in new coaches or retrofitted in existing Indian trains.

The railways went ahead with the toilet installation even though the flaw in the basic model designed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) had been pointed out by an expert panel in 2007. In an interview (to be published tomorrow), Vinod Tare, an IIT professor of environmental engineering, who headed this panel, told us that these bio-toilets had been found ineffective at two venues: Kumbh Mela, the massive gathering of Hindu pilgrims held every 12 years at a river bank, and the army base-camp at Siachen glacier.

The panel’s two-year study was completed in November 2017 by IIT Madras, as IndiaSpend reported on November 23, 2017.

The railways sent a rejoinder to our story–you can read it here–and soon after announced they were exploring airplane-style vacuum toilets.

The railways bought 3,600 litres of inoculum for Rs 68,400 in May 2016, said the CAG report. Based on this cost, we estimate that to recharge the 97,761 bio-toilets currently in use, the railways will need 23.46 million litres–or 3,350 truckloads–of cow dung.

With the railways failing to produce enough bacteria, the cow dung will be sourced from private sector at Rs 19 per litre. The railways have a workshop–with an installed capacity to generate 30,000 litres of bacteria each month–in Nagpur, but no action has been taken on a 2011 proposal to set up two more facilities, at Kapurthala and Perambur.

No clarity on funds or manpower for bio-toilet project

There is no clarity on two other critical issues relating to bio-toilets on trains: The infrastructure costs involved in installation, including procurement and installation of evacuation machines and hydraulic lifts, and anticipated expenses on training and deployment of manpower.

Further, if all 54,506 rail coaches are to be fitted with vacuum toilets atop the bio-toilets being installed–as is being planned–there will be an additional cost of Rs 10,900 crore. The current market price of a vacuum toilet unit is approximately Rs 200,000.

The additional expense might have been worth it if the bio-toilet scheme, 24 years in the making, had been efficient. But the CAG has amplified concerns about its performance and has endorsed the findings of the IndiaSpend investigation.

The flaws in bio-toilets, according to the CAG

In an evaluation of 25,000 toilets for the period under review (2016-17), the CAG detected 199,689 defects and deficiencies. Here are some major issues, according to the report:

Highest number of problems/ defects (41,111) found at the Bengaluru coaching depot, followed by Gorakhpur (24,495) and Wadi Bunder (22,521);
Complaints per bio-toilet were highest at the Bengaluru coaching deport (98), followed by Wadi Bunder (32), Rameshwaram (28) and Gwalior (17);
Of the 102,792 instances of choking, 10,098 (10%) cases reported in March 2017;
Of the 102,792 cases of choking in 25,080 bio-toilets, the highest (34%) were reported from Bengaluru. This implied that one bio-toilet got choked 83 times a year;
Choking incidents have risen from 2015-16: One bio-toilet got choked four times a year during 2016-17.
Quantity and quality of material used criticised by CAG

In an email dated May 21, 2016, to then defence minister Manohar Parrikar, Y Ashok Babu, a scientist at the DRDO, had alleged that a “nexus of bureaucrats and industrialists” was pushing for what was “nothing but gobar gas plants involving no technology”.

The CAG report too slammed the railways for the “quality and quantity” of material being procured.

As the report observed, there were complaints pending against seven of the nine firms against with which the Railway Board placed orders. These are: Ms JSL Life Style Limited, Ms Omax Auto Limited, Ms Mohan Rail Components Limited, Ms Rail Fab, Ms Amit Engineers, Ms Hindustan Fiber Glass Works and Ms Rail Tech.

In July 2017, the railways ministry barred three companies (Ms Rail Tech, Ms Rail Fab and Ms Hindustan Fiber) from being considered for railway contracts for an unspecified period. The ministry also proposed that the contract of another company, Ms Mohan Rail, be cancelled.

Negligence in testing of effluents and bacteria culture

The CAG report found that 12 coaching depots of nine railway zones had not finalised the annual maintenance and operating contracts (AMOCs) for bio-toilets.

“Evaluation of performance is a continuous process resulting in addition or deletion from the approved list,” the railways ministry said in a press note in response to the CAG report. It added that “all major coaching depots now had the AMOC contract, while this was progressively being extended to other depots”.

As the CAG found, Indian Railways have not adhered to the guidelines on testing the effluents released by bio-toilets. The tests had not been conducted at all at the Dhanbad coaching depot and records of the samples sent for testing and the results of these tests were not maintained at five coaching depots.

At the Lower Parel workshop in Mumbai, 18 drums of bacteria procured at a cost of Rs 68,400 in May 2016 had been lying unused even after their shelf life had expired.

After 2011, the railways placed bulk orders for the supply, installation and commissioning of approximately 80,000 bio-toilets. The CAG criticised the railways for failing to come up with a “standardized design” for these units. It also pointed to the “large scale proliferation” of 10,000 tanks in November 2011 “before test results of trials on seven different variants had been analyzed”.

Earlier news reports had suggested that the land-based variants of these toilets were unsuccessful.

This is the first of a two-part series. You can read our November 2017 report on railway bio-toilets here.

Next: ‘Railways Went Ahead With A Failed Bio-Toilet Model’

(Jha is a New Delhi-based freelance journalist.)

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 29 minutes ago

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‘Railways Went Ahead With A Failed Bio-Toilet Model’ IndiaSpend

✔@IndiaSpend

Tech solutions to train-toilet problem exist, but ‘the intention to find a lasting solution is not there’. Bureaucrats only interested in fulfilling targets, ensuring tenures are trouble-free: IIT engineer & professor Vinod Tare tells us. http://bit.ly/2CIZKAY

Amlan عملان अम्लान Dutta@orphean_warbler

Some yrs back Jairam Ramesh took initiative & DRDO installed some bio toilets in the villages near Wheeler Island. No one used them.
Biotoilets don’t work in Indian context

Mrinal Pande@MrinalPande1

द.ध्रुव से आयातित खास बैक्टीरिया से लैस करवाए गये हमारी रेलों के बायो- टायलेट करोड़ों खर्च करके भी नारकीय क्यों बने हुए हैं? जानकारी ।

Assa Doron@AssaDoron

So much for biotoilets http://www.indiaspend.com/cover-story/why-indian-railways-need-to-buy-3350-truckloads-of-cow-dung-for-rs-42-cr-78722 …

rsivaram@rsivaram

Wow, that’s some sh*t!

 12 minutes ago

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On-board treatment of human excreta in trains is difficult; evacuation facilities & treatment plants–for compost or biogas–can be set up in the rail yards: IIT’s Vinod Tare, head of 2007 team that studied bio-toilet project in Indian trains.

THE LEGAL INDIA@thelegalindia

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J’Railways  Went Ahead With A Failed Bio-Toilet Model’ – IndiaSpend http://ift.tt/2CN31jx

Dinesh Agrawal, Ex-IRS@dka1966
Replying to @IndiaSpend @MisaBharti

Who took decision to install bio-toilets in Railway, it appears that decision was taken decades back but installed during UPA regime but NDA is blamed

Harshit Gupta@hg6

Failed bio-toilet model?

IndiaSpend

✔@IndiaSpend

Bio-toilet model used in Indian trains failed to work at 2013 Kumbh Mela and Siachen but railways still pushing for use in all trains. Our interview with engineer & prof Vinod Tare, head of 2007 IIT study on train bio-toilets. http://bit.ly/2CIZKAY

Teesta Setalvad@TeestaSetalvad

Huge waste of your and mine..The Indian taxpayers money

Rakesh Kumar@rakeshkonfucius

Cc @PiyushGoyal @PiyushGoyalOffc

SK Iyer@iyer_sk

A 2007 study, jointly conducted by the Lucknow-based Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) and IIT Kanpur, also concluded that excreta wasn’t being treated in the bio-digesters. The railways has not made this report public. http://www.indiaspend.com/cover-story/railways-went-ahead-with-a-failed-bio-toilet-model-17151 …

Quicksilver@shigrahrajat
Replying to @IndiaSpend

they planted the septic tank in the coaches.

#कमभक्त@chat2malay

Dr @PiyushGoyal ji ये हो क्या रहा है

Drdo

RTI-Army – Misutilization of Army manpower in DRDO

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To                                                                                          23 December 2017

The CPIO, MoD (Army)
RTI Cell, G-6, D-1 Wing, Sena Bhawan
Integrated Headquarter of MoD (Army)
DHQ PO, New Delhi 110011

Hello,
Kindly provide me with the following information requested under the purview of the Right to Information Act, 2005 in respect of rules position to use army manpower deputed to DRDO for various assignments. It is observed that in DRDO scientists and services officers are using army jawans for their personal service, like cleaning private vehicles, using as driver in their personal cars in office hours and after office hours even in holidays. In VRDE, DRDO, Ahemadnagar Lt Col Praveen Kumar utilizing army manpower Sh  Vaidya Mahesh  in his personal service. The enclosed pictures are self explanatory.

Please find some pictures of Army jawans performing duty for private vehicles of Dr DP Singh Scientist, EMU, DRDO Dehradun engaged a private Scorpio in contract since few years. The vehicle is fully painted with Bharat Sarkar, Raksha Mantralay, EMU, DRDO etc.

  1. Please provide the rules position for utilizing army jawans for personal works by services officers deputed to DRDO and DRDO scientists.
  2. Whether it is allowed by Indian army (Yes/No)
  3. Any disciplinary action can be initiate by competent authority if it is come under misutilization of army jawans or other ranks (Yes/No)
  4. If yes then in case of services officers deputed in DRDO who will the competent authority.
  5. If yes then in case of DRDO scientists who will the competent authority.

Regards

Prabhu Dandriyal

21-Sunderwala, Raipur, Dehradun-248008

Phone – 0135- 2787750, Mobile- 9411114879,

e-mail id prabhudoon@gmail.com  website – www.corruptionindrdo.com

Enclosed

  1. Photographs from VRDE, DRDO, Ahemadnagar
  2. Photographs from EMU, DRDO Dehradun

Registration Number            MODEF/R/2017/53235

Drdo

Indian Railways faces CAG heat on bio-toilets

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The report indicated that no awareness campaign was conducted by railway zones – except Southern Railway.
Shine Jacob | New Delhi Buisness Standard
Last Updated at December 19, 2017
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has criticised Indian Railways for installation of bio-toilets on trains, citing that majority of them face operation deficiencies including choking, foul smell and inadequate supply of bacterial inoculum.

The report indicated that no awareness campaign was conducted by railway zones – except Southern Railway. Moreover, only 36.62 per cent supervisory and 23.21 per cent non-supervisory staff were trained in maintenance of bio-toilets.

The ‘bio-toilet’ (using bio-digester technology) is an eco-friendly waste management solution, which reduces solid human waste to bio-gas and water with the help of a bacterial inoculum through biological degradation of human waste. It eliminates the direct discharge of human waste from coach toilets onto railway tracks and platform aprons in stations, and helps avoid manual scavenging while keeping the platform aprons and trains clean.

An audit conducted in 30 coaching depots of 15 zonal railways in 2016-17 by CAG indicated that out of 613 trains being handled in these depots, 160 trains did not have any bio-toilets fitted. “In remaining 453 trains with 25,080 bio-toilets, 1,99,689 instances of deficiencies were noticed,” the report said.
It was in January 2015 that the railway board decided to eliminate the provision of direct discharge toilets in new coaches by the end of 2016-17. However, during 2014-15 to 2016-17, utilization of funds for retrofitment of bio-toilets remained between 34 per cent and 71 per cent. For the year 2016-17, Minister of Railways had announced that 20,000 bio-toilets were to be inducted through retrofitment. Railway Board fixed an internal target of 50,000 bio-toilets to be inducted through retrofitment. “As against this target, various Zonal Railways could achieve induction of 22,198 bio-toilets through retrofitment. The shortfall of more than 30 per cent was noticed in five Zonal Railways out of 16 Zonal Railways (East Central-67 per cent, North Central-49 per cent, Northern-42 per cent, South Eastern-44 per cent and Western-43 per cent),” the report added.

The report also indicated that due to the inadequate progress of retrofitment of bio-toilets in passenger coaches by Zonal Railways, Railway Board decided to place a bulk order for supply, installation and commissioning of approximately 80,000 bio-toilets in in-service coaches. “As against 33,783 bio-toilets which were to be supplied to 16 Zonal Railways up to March 2017, only 14,274 bio-toilets were supplied by the firms. Out of these, 12,016 bio-toilets were fitted in coaches up to March 2017,” it said. CAG also highlighted that out of the nine firms, on which orders were placed, seven firms, had complaints pending against them regarding quantity and quality of material supplied during 2015-16 and 2016-17.

Drdo

Railways target 80,000 bio-toilets in 2018, vacuum bio-toilets next in line A day after a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report revealed that there were over two lakh complaints about choking, foul-smelling and non-functional bio-toilets in trains from the passengers in 2016-2017 alone, the national transporter said its target was to achieve a complete shift to bio-toilets in all the train coaches by December, 2018.

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Dec 20, 2017 09:55 PM IST | Source: PTI Money Control

A day after a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report revealed that there were over two lakh complaints about choking, foul-smelling and non-functional bio-toilets in trains from the passengers in 2016-2017 alone, the national transporter said its target was to achieve a complete shift to bio-toilets in all the train coaches by December, 2018.
PTI
@moneycontrolcom
The railways would not only install 80,000 bio-toilets in trains in 2018, but would go one step further and install vacuum bio-toilets, like those in aeroplanes — odour-free and choke-free, it said today.

A day after a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report revealed that there were over two lakh complaints about choking, foul-smelling and non-functional bio-toilets in trains from the passengers in 2016-2017 alone, the national transporter said its target was to achieve a complete shift to bio-toilets in all the train coaches by December, 2018.

Ravindra Gupta, a member of the Railway Board, refused to comment on the CAG report, but said the ministry was planning to roll out the first 100 coaches with bio-vacuum toilets.

Ravindra Gupta, a member of the Railway Board, refused to comment on the CAG report, but said the ministry was planning to roll out the first 100 coaches with bio-vacuum toilets.

“These bio-toilets will be odour-free, will cut down the water usage by 1/20th and have much lesser chances of getting blocked. We will first install these toilets in 100 trains, then gradually scale it up,” he said.

The vacuum bio-toilets will cost the railways Rs 2.5 lakh per unit, while the present bio-toilets cost Rs 1 lakh each.

The Chennai-based Integral Coach Factory (ICF) will roll out 100 coaches fitted with bio-vacuum toilets, starting January 2018.

Initially, these toilets will be in the AC-I and AC-II coaches of select trains.

Gupta also said 22 green corridors were planned for 2017 -2018, while six such corridors were commissioned in 2016- 2017.

Drdo

Almost 2 lakh complaints of choking, foul smelling bio-toilets in trains: CAG

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PTI|Dec 19, 2017,The Economic Times
NEW DELHI: Almost two lakh complaints regarding choking, foul smelling and non-functional bio- toilets in trains were received from the public in 2016-2017, a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) said today.

The CAG, in its report on ‘Induction of bio-toilets in passenger coaches in Indian Railways’, has said that out of the 613 trains being handled in 32 coaching depots it audited, 160 trains did not have bio-toilets.

“In the remaining 453 trains having 25,080 bio-toilets, 1,99,689 instances of deficiencies or complaints were noticed,” the report stated.

With 1,02,792 complaints, choking seemed to be the most common problem for passengers regarding bio-toilets, the report said, followed by complains of foul smell (16,375), non-functional toilets (11,462), non-availability of dustbins (21,181), non-availability of mugs (22,899) and other complaints like ball valve failure and wire ropes (24,980).

The report has said that 1,02,792 cases of choking in 25,080 bio toilets imply “that one bio-toilet got choked four times in a year during 2016-2017.” During 2015-2016, for 24,675 bio toilets, 61,088 cases of choking were seen.

“This shows that instances of choking of bio-toilets increased in 2016-2017 and needs to be addressed,” it said.

The report said that 33.89 per cent of the choking cases were noticed in Bengaluru coaching depot in South Western Railway alone, which handles only 1.6 per cent of the total bio-toilets, implying that one bio-toilet got choked 83 times in a year.

The report which is based on audit for the period 2014- 2015-2016-2017 and was submitted in Parliament today, also provided Railways’ view on the stinking and choking bio- toilets.

Comments
S.K.
Bio-toilets are a very dumb idea. FEKU should have learned the best practice of rlys in the West.

Drdo

RTI – Railway- bacteria from low temperature areas in India were acclimatized

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To                                                                                                        20th December 2017

Shri  RAKESH  KUMAR

D.D. (PG) &  C.P.I.O.

(Registration & Coordination)

R.No 05, RTI Cell / RB

Railway Board, New Delhi -110001

Hello,

Kindly provide me with the following information requested under the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 in respect of IR’s para-wise reply to Article titled “New Toilets In Indian Trains No Better than Septic Tanks: IIT Study” published in India Spend dated 23rd November, 2017. At para number 11 of the rejoinder, in reply it has been stated that instead bacteria from low temperature areas in India were acclimatized to low temperature and the bacterial species which had compromised activity at low temperature were supplemented (bioaugmentation) with selected group of bacteria isolated from lake sediment samples brought from Antarctica.

  1. Copy of patent If any applied for acclimatization process developed by DRDO, submitted to you by DRDO or  any other related documents,  which supported your statement  in reply of para 11.
  2. Kindly provide me a certified copy of safety certifications obtained from environmental agencies and bio safety agencies if you made them acclimatized through gene manipulation or any genetic engineering methods before releasing such bacteria into environment.

 

Regards

Prabhu Dayal Dandriyal

21-Sunderwala, Raipur, Dehradun-248008

Phone – 0135- 2787750, Mobile- 9411114879,

e-mail id prabhudoon@gmail.com  website – www.corruptionindrdo.com

Registration Number      MORLY/R/2017/54482

IR’s para-wise reply to Article titled “New Toilets In Indian Trains No Better than Septic Tanks: IIT Study” published in India Spend dated 23rd November, 2017

11. Lokendra Singh, former director of the DRDE, had, after an expedition to Antarctica, brought home psychrophilic bacteria that can survive in extremely low temperatures. The bacteria were mixed with cowdung and normal soil, which have methogens (micro-organisms that produce methane) capable of breaking down human excreta. This was then supplied to the manufacturers of rail bio-digesters. 11.  It is not true that all the bacteria involved in biodegradation process were brought from Antarctica. Instead bacteria from low temperature areas in India were acclimatized to low temperature and the bacterial species which had compromised activity at low temperature were supplemented (bioaugmentation) with selected group of bacteria isolated from lake sediment samples brought from Antarctica.

The basic microbiological and biochemical steps involved in bio-digester, gobar gas plant and septic tank are similar except that septic tank does not have methanogens instead lower fatty acids get converted into H2S gas by employing sulphate reducing bacteria. Another difference is that inoculum is not added to the septic tank whereas bio-digester is seeded initially with a known anaerobic microbial consortium. The major difference in bacterial composition used in bio-digester and other technologies is that bacteria are more efficient and work in wider temperature range including low temperature (cold active bacteria and not psychrophiles as reported in the news)