CITIZENS ACTION COMMITTEE Vs. CIVIL SURGEON MAYO GENERAL HOSPITAL NAGPUR AND ADMINISTRATORS MUNICIPAL CORPORATION NAGPUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Citizens Action Committee is an organisation of the citizens. They have filed by their Secretary and other members numbering about 10 these two petitions complaining against the statutory authorities and public authorities, who are the respondents before us including the State, in that, inspite of constant correspondence, requests and publications in Press, cuttings of which are appended with photo prints to the petitions the authorities have not cared and have in fact continued the state of affairs with regard to the roads, sanitation and public health to deteriorate in the City of Nagpur to such an extent that the intervention of this Court in its extraordinary jurisdiction has become expedient and necessary.

(2.) After looking into the prima facie allegations with regard to the roads involving non-repairs, traffic congestion, non-maintenance, not providing lighting, so also the matters of sanitation involving pollution, non-cleaning of refuge, permitting open sewage drains, not canalising the open dirty nalas and with regard to the public health involving the matters of running the three Government Hospitals and further dumping of human refuge without any further treatment leading to obvious public hazards, we thought it fit to direct notices to issue to all authorities concerned, who are joined as respondents. The picture brought to us by the citizens was that the City was stinking and was at the point of collapse, fighting against various pressures and the authorities were not taking remedial measures. That appears to be the general criticism from the newspaper cuttings with regard to various matters. It is not necessary to refer to all those news items, which have been put on record to show the objective dated at various places and times. Similarly we were presented a list of localities with a complaint that they were not been supplied with basic amenities of roads, lighting, sewage lines etc.

(3.) During the course of the proceedings all the authorities have filed their say explaining their position. With the consent of the parties we thought it fit to appoint two Fact Finding Committees. Two of the Fact Finding Committees have made the reports of the facts observed by them. These reports are Exhs. A to D appended to these two petitions. After all the submissions and affidavits were put in, we sorted out issues which could be dealt with on admitted positions between the parties and with the consent of all concerned, we recorded our directions on each of the issues. These issues and the directions meet the main grievances raised in these two petitions by the petitioners. Those issues and the directions are set out in the Annexure to the judgment and form part of the present judgment. We may make it clear that we have given time bound programme after due discussion with the authorities concerned. Wherever the matters of police were involved, we directed the State to lay down the policy and further to issue directions to the concerned statutory authorities.