Opposition leader in the Kerala Assembly VD Satheesan on Monday said that the removal of garbage has come to a standstill in the state, leading to outbreak of diseases and around 150 lives have been lost due to contagious diseases in the state this monsoon season.

Speaking to media persons in Kochi, Satheesan said the inaction of Kerala Government in timely clearance and management of waste is pushing Kerala towards an unprecedented health crisis.

When the opposition pointed out in the assembly that the government has failed to carry out the pre-monsoon sanitation works, the Local Self Governance Minister ridiculed us, he said.

The senior Congress leader said the Health Minister made light of the situation by terming the deaths due to contagious diseases as “normal.”

Satheesan said the state government is bringing shame to Kerala, which has made remarkable achievements in the public health sector.

A patient was trapped in the lift of the government medical college in Thiruvananthapuram unattended for two days, he said.

Ulloor native and CPI local secretary Raveendran Nair, 59, got stuck inside the lift of the OP Block of the government medical college on Saturday.

The police said that the incident came to light only on Monday morning when the lift operator started it for routine work. The man’s family had on Sunday night filed a missing person complaint with the medical college police.

Speaking on Thiruvananthapuram Amayizhanchan canal mishap, Satheesan said the cleaning worker Joy is a victim of the negligence and mismanagement of the administration.

It was the poor man’s helplessness that made him jump into the dirty water without any safety system, he said. He also expressed his condolences and grief over the demise of Joy.

“Within hours of the cleaning worker’s disappearance, tons of garbage was removed with the help of machines, he said, and asked “What was the problem with doing this earlier,” he said.

“It is said that there was a dispute between the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation and the Railways over cleaning the Amayizhanchan canal. The Thiruvananthapuram Corporation failed to sort out the issue of waste clearance with the Railways,” he said.