Garbage control: Court asks govt for status report

NEW DELHI, February 25: The Delhi High Court has asked civic agencies and other government bodies to submit status reports on the clearin...

NEW DELHI, February 25: The Delhi High Court has asked civic agencies and other government bodies to submit status reports on the clearing of garbage in areas under their control.

The division bench, comprising acting Chief Justice Devinder Gupta and Justice K.S. Gupta, today directed the agencies, including the Muncipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and the Northern Railways, to place before it their reports within a week detailing the action they had taken on the suggestions by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for bettering sanitary conditions in Delhi.

The Director General of the CPWD, who was summoned by the court during the last hearing, detailed the steps that they had taken to ensure a garbage-free Capital. The court was hearing a PIL on poor sanitary conditions in Delhi, filed by advocate B.L. Wadehra, that was transferred by the Supreme Court to the High Court last year.

Wadehra also took up the issue of unauthorised piggeries and milk dairies set up in residential areas of the Capital which were causing pollution and adding to the unsanitary conditiokns. The matter concerning the allotment of land for use as a new garbage dumping site, he further added, was still pending with the DDA as its development commissioner had been transferred and the post was lying vacant. Wadehra sought a direction to the DDA to expedite the matter as the existing landfill sites would be filled within the next four months.