India News | HC Dissatisfied with Panel Report on Review of Delhi's Infrastructure
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Delhi High Court on Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction over a report filed by a committee headed by the chief secretary to review the city's administrative, financial and physical infrastructure.
New Delhi, Nov 6 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction over a report filed by a committee headed by the chief secretary to review the city's administrative, financial and physical infrastructure.
The high court said the committee's report focuses only on the drainage system in the city and added that it was inclined to refer the entire issue to the cabinet secretary of the Union of India.
"A preliminary glance of the report showed that it was confined to the drainage system in Delhi. However, this court had asked the committee to review the administrative, physical and financial infrastructure of Delhi in its entirety.
"This court is inclined to refer the entire issue of review of administrative, physical and financial infrastructure of Delhi to the Cabinet Secretary of Union of India," said a bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela.
The counsel representing the Delhi government urged the court to grant some time to the committee for filing a supplementary report.
At his request, the court listed the matter for further hearing on November 28.
Earlier while hearing a case relating to safety measures in the coaching centres here, the court had said that one needed to look at the bigger picture as there was a far more fundamental problem in the city and it was time to relook at Delhi's administrative, financial and physical infrastructure, which was outdated and not in line with the present day needs.
It had formed a committee headed by the chief secretary of Delhi and also comprising the DDA vice chairman, Delhi Police Commissioner and MCD Commissioner to deal with the issue and submit the report.
On Wednesday, the bench expressed concerns over the report filed by the committee which was primarily confined to the drainage system in the city.
As the Delhi government counsel said that he would escalate the issue with the committee and file a supplementary report, the court said, "We want the report otherwise we will send it to the Cabinet Secretary. We will ask the Cabinet Secretary to examine it."
The court observed that there was a multiplicity of authorities in Delhi and they were not coordinating with each other.
"Departments are working in silos. They are not coordinating. We had said earlier also there was a lack of coordination between the authorities. The fact that we had asked the authorities to sit together and work showed that the system was not working," it said.
Meanwhile, the CBI also filed its status report in a sealed cover in relation to its investigation in connection with the death of three IAS aspirants at the basement of a coaching centre in July.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi also filed a report stating that it has removed all encroachment in the Old Rajinder Nagar area and has commenced construction of open storm water drains with removable covers.
The court had earlier asked the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to nominate a senior officer to oversee the probe by the CBI into the criminal case in a time-bound manner.
On August 2, the high court had transferred the probe into the drowning incident case from the Delhi Police to the CBI to ensure that the public has no doubt over the investigation.
It had also criticised the police for arresting the SUV driver and blaming him for the incident.
The bench had also ordered the removal of encroachments and unauthorised constructions, including on stormwater and sewage drains, in the Rajinder Nagar area.
The court was hearing a plea by Kutumb, an organisation that sought a high-level committee to investigate the deaths of three civil service aspirants in the basement of a flooded coaching centre, Rau's IAS Study Circle, in Old Rajinder Nagar on the evening of July 27.
The three who died were Shreya Yadav (25) of Uttar Pradesh, Tanya Soni (25) from Telangana and Nevin Delvin (24) from Kerala.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)