“People are dying” due to lack of proper disposal of waste, the Supreme Court said on Monday as it expressed concern over garbage dumped at landfill sites in the national capital.
“I have seen some TV reports in which it was pointed out that people are dying (due to lack of garbage disposal). What are you doing,” a bench headed by Justice MB Lokur asked Solicitor General (SG) Ranjit Kumar who was appearing for the Delhi Chief Secretary.
Responding to the query, Kumar said he would take instruction on the issue and inform the bench on the next date of hearing about the steps being taken to remove and dispose garbage from the landfill sites.
“On the next date of hearing, we will come up with the instructions whether these landfill sites can be moved to some other place and what are the steps being taken to remove the garbage,” the SG said.
He said that the October 6 meeting between the Lieutenant Governor, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and others could not take place as the CM was unwell and a meeting in this regard was held on Sunday.
The SG informed the bench that various issue, including disposal and cleaning of garbage and sewer, were discussed in yesterday’s meeting and also filed the minutes of the meeting in the court.
The counsel for the Delhi government told the bench that Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had attended yesterday’s meeting on behalf of Kejriwal as the CM was in Gujarat.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, who is an amicus curiae in the matter, could not attend the proceedings in the apex court and the bench posted the matter for October 21.
On October 6, the apex court had criticised the authorities over the handling of dengue and chikungunya menace in Delhi and observed that they here were “not interested” and the people have been “left to suffer”.
The apex court had also expressed disappointment over the outcome of October 5 meeting between the LG, CM and others on curbing vector-borne diseases like dengue and chikungunya and had asked them to hold another meeting on October 6.
The bench had directed that participants should discuss the steps to be taken to prevent the problem faced by people of Delhi this year and also the future measures.
The apex court had on October 3 imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on Jain for failing to file an affidavit disclosing names of officials whom he had alleged of not cooperating in checking the menace of dengue and chikungunya in Delhi.
It had earlier taken suo motu cognisance of the death of a seven-year-old boy due to dengue last year after being allegedly denied treatment by five private hospitals and the subsequent suicide by his parents.
The five hospitals – Max hospital in Saket, Moolchand Khairatiram Hospital in Lajpat Nagar, Aakash Hospital in Malviya Nagar, Saket City Hospital and Irene Hospital, Kalkaji, were issued show cause notices to explain why their registration should not be cancelled for allegedly refusing to admit the boy.
