SC asked Delhi government and Lieutenant Governor to work together to curb dengue, chikungunya.
Criticising the measures taken so far to combat the spread of dengue and chikungunya in Delhi, the Supreme Court today came down hard on the state government and municipal authorities saying that they were "not interested" and that the people of the national capital had been "left to suffer".
The top court made the remarks after it reviewed the minutes of a meeting it had ordered between the Lieutenant Governor and the Delhi Government on Wednesday. The court said it was disappointed with the outcome of the meeting, where officials passed the buck instead of discussing new steps to curb mosquito breeding.
"We are quite disappointed with the outcome. These people are not interested and the people of Delhi are left to suffer," a bench of justices MB Lokur and Amitava Rao said.
While the court ordered another meeting to be held on Thursday evening, it also said that it would act against officials who sent in "substitutes" instead of attending the meeting themselves. It directed senior advocate Colin Gonsalves to also be present during the meeting and observe that the court's orders were being followed.
The court also refused to go into allegations made by both the Delhi government and the Governor's office accusing each other of interfering in administrative work, and not cooperating in measures taken to combat dengue and chikungunya.
"We expect the participants (in the meeting) to keep the interests of the people in mind while doing the exercise, and we expect that the action taken is collaborative and cooperative," the court said.
The court also asked Union Health secretary PK Mishra, Chief Secretary KK Sharma and the commissioners of the various Delhi municipal corporations to attend the meeting.
The court had earlier fined Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain on October 3 for failing to file an affidavit disclosing the names of officials who he had alleged of not cooperating with measures against dengue and chikungunya.