MCDs face court heat for failure to curb vector-borne diseases

NEW DELHI:  The high court on Tuesday slammed the municipal corporations for failing to control the vector-borne diseases of dengue, malaria and chikungunya. A division bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Jasmeet Singh was dealing with a petition filed by South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) against a Delhi government decision directing retrospective recovery of grants and aid on the SDMC and other local bodies with effect from 01.04.2016 as being arbitrary and void.

Court questioned the corporation through its counsel and asked what the SDMC was doing to control dengue. “What are you doing Mr. Sagar? There is so much dengue. You are doing nothing. You only want salaries. What do you do with these salaries and amounts?” asked Justice Sanghi.

Justice Singh also expressed his concern that no progressive steps were being taken by the municipal corporation to tackle dengue. “How can it be that every year dengue is increasing? We are at pains to understand what is happening. Is it some rocket science that after the monsoon there will be mosquitoes? It’s been a pattern for the last 15 to 20 years,” said Justice Singh.

He added that the plea had come forth not because the corporations were understaffed. “In fact, you may be overstaffed. Has the municipality given up everything and its only objective is to collect taxes and disburse salaries? How do they expect salaries if they don’t do work,” questioned Justice Singh.

Court also sought clarity on the number of people looking into the dengue pandemic and the plan to deal with the same. “Obviously your mosquito checkers, breeders are doing nothing. They are not going to the ground. Probably, they are just marking their attendance and you are paying them, that’s all,” Justice Sanghi added.

‘Why no new head of institute?’

NEW DELHI: The high court on Tuesday directed the government to respond why it stopped recruitment of a new director for Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS). The court was hearing a plea challenging the extension given to Director NG Desai after he turned 65 years old, was informed that despite an assurance that the a new director would be appointed by November 30. 

One-day assembly session on Nov 26

NEW DELHI: A one-day special session of the Delhi Legislative Assembly will be held on November 26, said a bulletin. The session will start at 11 am on Friday and may be extended depending on “exigencies of business”, said the Assembly bulletin issued on Monday. The agenda of the session was unavailable although it is scheduled to take up 10 special mention notices under Rule 280.