Delhi High Court: calls for a civic mess

Delhi High Court:  has harshly criticized the city’s administration and municipal organizations for their “appalling” failure to build storm water and sewage infrastructure in 27 industrial areas, noting that none of the officials were prepared to accept accountability for the project.

The situation revealed “a complete breakdown of accountability” among agencies, according to a division bench of Justices Prathiba M. Singh and Manmeet Pritam Arora, which is hearing two suo motu public interest litigations, one of which was started in 2022 over inadequate rainwater harvesting measures and frequent monsoon traffic jams.

To help the court break the impasse, the Bench has called in top officials, including Chief Secretary Rajeev Verma. DPCC Secretary Sandeep Mishra, MCD Commissioner Ashwani Kumar, DSIIDC Managing Director Nazuk Kumar, and Additional Chief Secretary (Industries) Bipul Pathak have also been ordered to appear.

The court stated that the aforementioned officials were present mainly to help the court deal with the situation in which no agency is willing to assume responsibility for the development and construction of storm water drains, sewage lines, connections to STPs and CETPs, and their monitoring.

The court noted that basic utilities including storm water drains and sewage lines were “non-existent” in certain regions and that companies were operating without adequate waste treatment facilities, which probably contaminated the Yamuna River and groundwater. It said, “This is a really terrible situation.”

The Bench noted that “there has been no progress since then except the appointment of three consultants,” in spite of a Cabinet resolution on August 22, 2023, mandating the reconstruction of certain industrial sites. Before the next hearing, the authorities are expected to convene and submit a coordinated action plan.

The aforementioned authorities will continue to be physically present in court if they are unable to record any significant decisions in a joint report. They may, however, virtually present on the next hearing date provided a report is submitted and it is recorded, offering appropriate remedies, the court said. The hearing is now scheduled on November 22.