The Delhi High Court on Friday came down heavily on the AAP government and the Municipal Corporations in the National Capital region, by asking them to do their duty. This comment by the High Court was in connection with the recent dengue cases in the capital.
It seemed that during the trial, the AAP government was laying the blame on the municipal corporations, to which the High Court sternly questioned whether it (AAP government) had no responsibility.
These comments were made by the court while hearing two PILs, which sought directions for the civic bodies and the other authorities concerned, to prevent spread of diseases like dengue, chikungunya and malaria.
The bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar, further took a shot at the AAP government by observing that, “It is always you (AAP government) versus the Centre, the corporations, some statutory authority. It has to be only versus? Can’t you work together?”
These statements come after five Dengue cases have been reported in the capital in January, which is a month not associated with rainfall.
The Judges as a result sought to know why the dengue cases were being reported in January itself, and pointed out that there was a need to solve this critical problem before it reached unimaginable proportions.
Incidentally the court was also annoyed with the lack of AAP government and Municipal Corporation’s knowledge when the former told that the latter had no information about the location of these cases.
The High Court also asked the AAP government and the corporations to reduce garbage stagnation and reduce landfill, otherwise one day only landfills would remain in the capital. The court also asserted that it did not want any deaths in Delhi due to vector borne diseases.
Such criticism of the Delhi High Court against the AAP government, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) isn’t anything new.
In December the court had slammed the AAP government for not buying low floor disable friendly buses. The AAP government’s assessment in the matter was that the cost cited by the bus manufacturers for these buses was exorbitant.
In November the court was annoyed with the AAP government’s proposal to utilise Rs 400 from green cess to buy 500 electric buses. As per the court, this cess was imposed to improve the environment and mitigate pollution and that the proposal to buy these buses amounted to diversion of funds.
October too saw the High Court pulling up Kejriwal, this time over the pending salaries of MCD workers. During the hearing the court had interestingly commented that, “There must be somebody with whom you are not at war”.
When it comes to the MCD, it was slammed by the Delhi High Court for failing to manage stagnation and garbage in the city.
