HC pulls up MCDs on doubling of dengue cases

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday pulled up the municipal corporations for their failure to prevent the spread of dengue.
Delhi High Court (File Photo)
Delhi High Court (File Photo)

NEW DELHI:  The Delhi High Court on Wednesday pulled up the municipal corporations for their failure to prevent the spread of dengue. It said that policies were being made in populist ways and that the governments were scared of doing anything that would lose them votes.

A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh was hearing a petition by South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) which challenged a Delhi cabinet decision of January 2019, directing retrospective recovery of grants and aid from the petitioner and other local bodies with effect from April 2016.

The counsel appearing for SDMC advocate Sanjeev Sagar submitted that the reason diseases like malaria and dengue increased in the city was because of excessive rain in October. He said that several Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) were not cooperating with the authorities when they visited for fogging. He demanded that the court pass directions to restrain the RWAs from stopping the officials, and increase the fine limit from `500 to `10,000 along with a right to collect the said fine on the spot.

During the hearing, counsel representing the SDMC asked the court to pass an order to increase the monetary limit on challans that could be issued to residents. The bench remarked that the reason the court was being asked to do this was because the authorities feared that if they did anything, people would not vote for them.

“We agree that there should be deterrence. In our society, people don’t understand unless there is a deterrent. We cannot go and legislate on this issue… You have become so populist that you think if we do anything, people won’t vote for us. Policies are being made in a populist way,” the bench remarked.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com