Taking serious note of the administration's failure in tackling the still-smouldering fire at the Brahmapuram waste plant here, the Kerala High Court on Friday appointed a committee to monitor the situation.

The committee comprises the Ernakulam district collector, Pollution Control Board officials and secretary of the Kerala State Legal Services Authority.

A bench of justices S V Bhatti and Basant Balaji directed the state Chief Secretary to inform the court in detail the steps taken by the government to tackle the issue.

The HC also directed the government to prepare an action plan to deal with the solid waste treatment.

When the matter was taken up, the court sought to know the current situation of the smoke-related issues and said the judges and the court staff suffered headaches due to the pollution in the air.

The Pollution Control Board informed that the situation at Brahmapuram is bad as the wind was blowing from the sea to land area.

The high court directed the government to take steps to deal with the health issues arising out of non-movement of the waste from the Kochi city.

Meanwhile, Congress MLA Uma Thomas filed a plea in the High Court seeking to deploy a National Disaster Management Response Team at Brahmapuram.

In her plea, Thomas alleged that the government and the city corporation failed to address the serious situation affecting the lives of people in the area.

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