Indian Railways will install bio-toilets in all the trains by next year and it will make tracks safe and eliminate defecation on the rail lines, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal informed the Rajya Sabha on Friday. He also said 60 per cent of the coaches have already been fitted with these toilets so far. Other issues to figure in the Upper House included safety of Aadhar data and having more Benches of High Courts in various States.
Observing that bio toilets was one of the most successful stories of the Railways, Goyal said during the Question Hour these toilets costing Rs one lakh each will be installed on the entire rail netwok, whether passenger trains, express, Duronto, Rajdhani or unreserved ones.
The Railways proposed to complete the work of installation of bio-toilets in balance coaches in 2019 and an outlay of Rs 1,220 crore was provided for completion of this project, Goyal said. He also informed the Elders that the technology was indigenous as Defence Research and Development Organisation(DRDO) developed these toilets and the Indian companies were manufacturing them.
The Minister said work was on to retro-fit additional vacuum- assisted flushing units in these toilets.
For his part, Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the government is serious about protecting Aadhar data and has appealed to people not to give social platforms a blanket consent to their data. He also informed the Rajy Sabha the government is awaiting a report by a committee of experts on data protection chaired by Justice(retired) B N Srikrishna adding even the World Bank and IMF have recognised Aadhaar as a fine instrument of governance and delivery.
Prasad also noted that the Government has issued a stern warning to Facebook and Cambridge Analytica against use of data and they had apologised. The Minister appealed to consumers not to give social platforms blanket permission to use their data. Aadhaar has been issued to 121.65 crore people and “we do daily authentication of 3.5 crore Aadhar,” he said
He said virtual Id (VID) is a temporary, revocable 16- digit random number mapped with the Aadhar number and the Aadhar number holder can use VID in lieu of Aadhar number for authentication purposes.
Fielding queries on setting of more benches of High Courts in various states, Prasad in his capacity as law Minister said it would depend on recommendations of the high court concerned. He made this observation with regard for a demand for a bench of Bombay High Court in Kolhapur, Maharashtra and said any initiative by the Centre in this regard is not proper.