File Photo: Delhi High Court
The Delhi High Court today said South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) "has done nothing" to clean up Lajpat Nagar Central market area which was found by one of the judges, hearing the matter, to be "completely littered."
"You are doing nothing. Nothing has been done to keep Lajpat Nagar clean because Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva went there this Sunday (May 17) and found that the Central Market was littered," Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed, who heads the bench hearing the PIL for cleanliness in the city, said.
"The Central Market area was completely littered. It was not litter of that one day, but it was evident that it had not been touched for days," Justice Sachdeva, also part of the bench, said.
SDMC counsel, Ajay Arora, thereafter assured the court that he would personally take up the issue with officials of the Corporation to ensure that the area was kept clean.
Meanwhile, an association representing
safai karamchaaris sought that they be impleaded in the PIL so that they can place their version before the court.
The PIL petitioner Nyay Bhoomi, represented by BB Sharan, alleged that the
safai karamchaaris had recently beaten up officials of the Corporation who had gone to inspect their work.
The court, however, did not go into the issues today and listed the matter for further hearing on July 29.
On May 13, the court had slammed SDMC for not doing anything to keep Lajpat Nagar in south Delhi clean despite its direction and said the civic body was not concerned about the people.
The court had on March 18 directed SDMC and other civic bodies to start cleaning, from March 19, the entire Lajpat Nagar in south Delhi and to maintain it that way as a "test" of their "efficiency and ability" to keep the city clean.
The high court had issued the direction to see if the civic bodies were "capable" of maintaining cleanliness in a model area "or else we will disband the Corporations".
The court had on January 28 directed the Corporations to adopt a 2001 order issued by then Commissioner of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and said appropriate circulars be issued by each of three MCDs.
It had also directed them to implement the 2001 order and sought substantive status reports from the MCDs.
The High Court had on September 10 last year restored its earlier order to have the streets of Delhi, public premises, drains and parks cleaned on a daily basis, including on Sundays and public holidays.
The petitioner NGO had filed a restoration plea before the court alleging that government agencies have failed to improve the conditions in the city despite the Supreme Court's observation in 1996 that the "historical city of Delhi, the capital of India, is one of the most polluted cities in the world".