New Delhi: "For heaven's sake, do your duty," an exasperated Delhi High Court on Friday told the AAP government and the municipal corporations in the national capital in view of the recent dengue cases.
It also expressed displeasure over the Delhi government laying the blame on the corporations' inaction and asked, "Don't you have any responsibility?"
"It is always you (the Delhi government) versus the Centre, the corporations, some statutory authority. It has to be only versus? Can't you work together," a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar asked the lawyer appearing for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.
It further said that instead of the authorities doing their duty, the court had to actively monitor the issue of waste management, the lack of which, according to the bench, was one of the reasons behind vector-borne diseases like dengue and malaria.
"We do not want any mortality in Delhi due to vector-borne diseases. If not for our intervention, you (the government and corporations) were happy doing nothing. You need to look at reducing garbage generation, instead of more sites for landfills. Else, soon Delhi will move out and only the landfills will remain," the bench said.
It sought to know from the authorities why dengue cases were being reported in January itself and said there was a need to address "this critical problem" before it reached "unmanageable proportions".
The observations came as the Delhi government had brought to the court's attention the news reports of five dengue cases in the national capital in January.
The government had also told the court that no information was available from the corporations about the locations from where these cases were reported, the bench said and asked, "What are you doing?"
It noted that the Delhi government was yet to publicise or put up on its website the waste management bye-laws which were framed on the court's direction and notified recently.
The court said there was hardly any publicity about the new rules by any of the authorities, who had made "no efforts" in this regard.
It sought a report from the Delhi government and the civic bodies on the steps taken to publicise and implement the bye-laws as well as the measures taken in anticipation of a dengue outbreak.
"How many challans have you issued under the new rules (bye-laws)," the court asked and listed the matter for further hearing on February 27.
The court had ordered framing of the draft bye-laws after environmental experts like Sunita Narain, Almitra Patel and M C Mehta claimed that a major challenge in solid waste management was the lack of such provisions.
The court was looking into the issue of solid waste management as it was of the view that garbage and lack of cleanliness contributed to the spread of vector-borne diseases like dengue and chikungunya.
The view was expressed by the court during the hearing of two PILs, filed by lawyers Arpit Bhargava and Gauri Grover respectively, seeking directions to the civic bodies and the other authorities concerned for steps to prevent the spread of dengue, chikungunya and malaria.
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