“There must be somebody with whom you are not at war”: Delhi HC to Kejriwal govt

0

Delhi High Court has reprimanded the city’s Arvind Kejriwal government over the pending salaries of sanitation workers the civic bodies in the national capital.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said, “Don’t bring such cases to us in courts. There must be somebody with whom you (Delhi government) are not at war. Be it the Union of India, MCDs or NDMC. If you have public interest in mind, then you will ensure that the MCDs do their job properly.”

To this, Delhi government standing counsel said the government was serious about the issue. The bench directed the striking sanitation employees not to obstruct cleaning of garbage as they caused serious diseases like dengue.

The bench was a hearing a plea seeking a direction to the authorities to ensure that the workers of East and North Delhi Municipal Corporations call off their strike, which started on 11 October and 16 October respectively, and resume work.

“Safai karamchari shall ensure that they seriously carry out the assigned duties of MCDs and no obstruction shall be caused,” the bench was quoted by PTI.

It said the failure to remove garbage and clean the dhalaos (dumps) have major repurcussions like direct connection with breeding of disease-bearing mosquito larvae leading to serious diseases like dengue and chikungunya.

“Therefore, there can be no stoppage of essential work of cleaning and removal of garbage. Doing so imperils lives of public at large,” the bench said.

The court listed the matter for further hearing on 25 October.

During the hearing, central government standing counsel Monika Arora said there were some safai karamcharis who were creating problems and refusing to discharge their duties and also stopping others from doing work.

She said due to this, garbage was accumulating on roads having adverse impact on the health of the residents.

Previous articleTimes Now, Republic kept out of Congress press conference on charges of biases
Next articleNow Barkha Dutt lashes out at NDTV, says she was ‘punished’ for speaking against censorship