Replace faulty streetlights: Punjab and Haryana High Court to Punjab

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 7

In an order liable to brighten up the residential areas just before Diwali, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that the State of Punjab and other functionaries were at least required to replace or repair the defective streetlights.

Rapping the local bodies for forcing the citizens to run pillar to post for resolution of their minor grievances such as replacement of streetlights, Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill also questioned their failure to use technology for coming up with an online complaint redressal mechanism. “A citizen should be able to lodge such minor complaints online by accessing website of the authority, while sitting at his home,” Justice Gill ruled.

The assertion came on a petition filed by Dinesh Sharma for directions to the State of Punjab and other respondents to comply with provisions of the Punjab Transparency and Accountability in Delivery of Public Services Act, 2018, and also the rules framed therein.

Taking up the matter through videoconferencing, Justice Gill asked the respondents to inform the Bench as to why a complaint mechanism pertaining to public utility services, especially of minor nature, could not be made online.

Justice Gill added the FIRs nowadays were being lodged online. Even the cases in the courts were being filed online, while the litigants and their counsel could be sitting at their homes. In these circumstances, it was unexplained why the local bodies — nagar panchayat, etc. — did not make use of the available technology, while forcing the people to run in and out.

Asking the respondents to file a specific reply in this regard, Justice Gill asserted many persons, in advanced age, were not able to effectively convey or lodge their complaints. “In the meantime, it is expected that the respondents as a remedial measure would at least ensure that the defective streetlights are duly replaced/repaired,” Justice Gill added, while fixing the case for December third week.

The direction came after Sharma told the court that public authorities were required to make relevant forms available for the convenience of the people to enable them to avail the public services under the Punjab Transparency and Accountability in Delivery of Public Services Rules, 2018.