Evicted! A broken chair, a plastic bottle

NEW DELHI: Just how seriously do municipal corporations in the city take court orders?

Delhi high court recently got a glimpse of it while taking stock of the progress on steps taken to remove traffic congestion and encroachments on a key arterial link on Mathura Road near Humayun’s Tomb, Neela Gumbad and Nizamuddin Aulia Dargah. The roundabout bridges south Delhi to the central zone of the capital as it sees heavy traffic movement along Mathura Road and Lodhi Road.

Assuring the court that both SDMC and traffic police were making all efforts to abide with court’s earlier orders, the corporation annexed a list of the items it seized during a removal drive — an empty plastic bottle, an ice box, a soft drinks trolley, a plastic stool and a broken chair apart from a few “rehris”.

Taking a dim view of SDMC and the traffic police’s approach to the court directions, a bench of chief justice Rajendra Menon and Anup J Bhambani cracked the whip, asking the commissioner of SDMC and DCP traffic to appear before it on the next date, April 16.

“In spite of repeated orders passed, we are sorry to note that the problem of traffic congestion in the area has not been addressed. Police and SDMC are blaming each other for the same,” the bench noted in its order.

The court was hearing a PIL by Jamia Arabia Nizamia Welfare Educational Society where it has alleged that the local police and SDMC deliberately ignore large-scale violations, rampant illegal constructions, unauthorised parking and traffic congestion near the Nizamuddin Dargah and Humayun Tomb area.

While the SDMC claimed in its status report that an eviction drive was carried out with help of local police as per court orders, the seizure memo annexed to the report came under the court’s scrutiny. The petitioner alleged that the SDMC and police carried out a farce in the name of the removal drive.

The bench then summoned senior officers saying it will “interact with them and pass orders.” Apart from SDMC, police, the Archaeological Survey of India and trustees of Nizamuddin Dargah are other parties in the PIL seeking to remove bottlenecks to traffic movement in the area.

Last year, the local police had informed court the lieutenant governor formed a special taskforce on decongestion and parking in the area. It had also claimed to have cracked down on unauthorised guesthouses running in Nizamuddin near the dargah and booked hundreds of owners who parked their vehicles illegally. Police had conceded that on physical verification, 69 guesthouses were found running in the area.

Even the Supreme Court had expressed its anger at the inability of police to keep the traffic corridor free of congestion. It had summoned the Delhi Police commissioner in July last year to explain failure to remove encroachments on the road.