On the question of fines, the court said that it agrees that people don't listen unless there is a deterrence. (File) The Delhi High Court Wednesday took a grim view of the civic situation in Delhi, particularly against the backdrop of a surge in dengue cases, and said that there was a complete paralysis of administration. It rapped the civic bodies for failing to tackle the dengue situation this season and questioned whether responsibility has been fixed for the doubling of cases this year.
“If only elections were fought and won on real issues, we would have a different city. Today they are being fought on what is free,” said the division bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Jasmeet Singh, which recently took suo motu note of the dengue situation while hearing a petition filed by the South MCD regarding the financial crunch faced by municipal corporations.
On the question of fines, the court said that it agrees that people don’t listen unless there is a deterrence. However, while addressing the municipal corporations and the government, the court said, “The problem is that you all have become so populist in your approach that you think if you do something, people will get offended and you won’t get votes. Everything is driven by that. Administrators are not administering. Policies are made only in a populist way.”
While taking note of the sanitation situation in East Delhi, the court said that the drains are open there and the area reeks. “It is so difficult to even go into that area. People who are living there, working there, probably have got used to it. There is so much air pollution,” it said. The court said the situation has not changed despite orders having been passed over many years: “Complete paralysis of administration. Nobody is accountable. It doesn’t matter. It will come and go and some people will die. We have a large population. It doesn’t matter, that is the attitude.”
Meanwhile, during the hearing of a case related to existing financial disputes between the government and municipal corporations, the government said the Centre was not treating Delhi fairly.
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