Mumbai sinking, Delhi stinking government doing nothing, say SC

NEW DELHI: Delhi is getting buried under mounds of garbage and Mumbai is sinking under water, but the government is doing nothing, an anguished Supreme Court said today. It slapped fines on 10 states and two UTs for not filing affidavits on their policies for solid waste management strategy.

Expressing its helplessness over the situation, the top court lamented that when the courts intervene, the judges are attacked for judicial activism, and said what can be done when government of the day does not do anything or acts in an irresponsible manner. A Bench of Justices MB Lokur and Deepak Gupta referred to the recent SC order on the powers of the Delhi government and the L-G and asked them to inform it by tomorrow who was responsible for clearing of the three “mountains of garbage” (landfill sites) at Okhla, Bhalswa and Ghazipur in Delhi.

The Bench was annoyed after it was informed that around 13 states and several UTs have not yet formulated their policy for solid waste management strategy. The top court slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Punjab, Lakshadweep and Puducherry for not filing the affidavit despite earlier directions.

The Bench also slapped a fine of Rs 2 lakh each on “remaining defaulting states/UTs” whose lawyers were also not present in the courtroom during the hearing, without naming these states. “One final opportunity is given to these states/UTs… failing which we may have to call the Chief Secretary of the states/UTs concerned,” it said, posting the matter for further hearing on August 7.

“Every second day, we are attacked for judicial activism. Every now and then there is a statement that courts are resorting to judicial activism or encroaching upon the powers of the executive or the legislature. What should we do when nobody is working,” it said.

It observed that due to loads of garbage in Delhi, people were getting infected by dengue, malaria and chikungunya. In 2015, the SC had on its own taken cognisance of death of a seven-year-old boy due to dengue. He was allegedly denied treatment by five private hospitals and his distraught parents subsequently committed suicide.