NYAYA BHOOMI Vs. COMMISSIONER MCD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The four captioned writ petitions, one of which is as per the Courts own motion raise a common issue of water logging during rainy season in Delhi. Additional issues have been raised in W.P.(C) No.8683/2011 pertaining to:-

(2.) The order sheets in the writ petitions would reveal that this Court took upon itself the task of attempting to clean the city of Delhi evidenced by orders passed directing authorities to do this or that; but to no tangible result. On the contrary such orders have encouraged either applications to be filed or writ petitions to be filed seeking directions that a drain here or a sewage line there be cleaned. This Court cannot take over the municipal governance in Delhi. But the problems which exist and are not being paid heed to by the Municipal Authorities need a redressal for the simple reason the obligatory functions of the Corporations and various statutory bodies in Delhi such as the Delhi Jal Board, the Delhi Development Authority can be enforced by means of mandamus issued.

(3.) Pertaining to the additional issues raised in W.P.(C) No.8683/2011, we find a contradiction of attitude in the directions sought for as per direction No.(i) and the other directions. As would be evident from what we have noted in paragraph 1 above, pertaining to pot holes, non-functional street lights, unhygienic toilets and inadequate number of safai karamcharis and equitable distribution thereof, the petitioner wants participation of residents welfare associations but when it comes to garbage collection from houses, to be dumped at the dhaloas i.e. garbage dumps constructed by Municipal Corporations in Delhi, the petitioner wants the Corporation to directly lift garbage from each house. It is the duty and responsibility of residents to throw their garbage in the dhaloas. Residents welfare associations employ garbage collectors to collect the garbage from each house for which each household pays between Rs. 100/- to Rs. 200/- per month, depending upon the number of households in the colony. Regretfully we note that in more than 80% of the authorized colonies in Delhi there are no functional residents welfare associations. If residents welfare associations cannot even organize themselves to execute the simple task of collecting garbage from the residents of the area, what use would it be to even consider any involvement of representatives of these associations in supervising re-carpeting of roads, replacing nonfunctional street lights, ensuring hygiene in public toilets etc. In unauthorized colonies the Residents Welfare associations are nonexistent.