The Delhi High Court on Monday expressed displeasure over the poor sanitary conditions in the Capital saying that “this is the state of cleanness when the Commonwealth Games is on the anvil”.
A Division Bench of the Court comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Ajit Bharihoke made these observations after going through a report on the sanitary conditions in the Capital submitted by the Central Pollution Control Board.
The Bench later summoned the Principal Secretary of the Delhi Government, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi Commissioner and the Medical Officer of the New Delhi Municipal Council to explain negligence on their part in keeping the city clean.
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The Board has prepared the report on a direction by the High Court. The Court has asked it to make a survey of the sanitary conditions in the city every three month and file a report.
The report says that the sanitary conditions in the city have deteriorated further and about 50 per cent of the city’s population are condemned to live in unhygienic conditions.
It particularly refers to the poor maintenance of a landfill site near the airport maintained by the Delhi Cantonment Board saying that it has become a threat to the flights taking off from the Indira Gandhi International Airport as birds hover over it.
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Garbage is still being burnt by the civic bodies’ sanitary staff which is an offence under the environment law, the reports states.
It further says that local bodies carry garbage to landfill sites in open trucks which falls on the road and cause environmental pollution.
About one-third of the city’s population defecate in the open and receptacles kept in the colonies for collection of garbage are kept open and not cleaned regularly, the report says.
The Court was hearing a 14-year-old petition drawing the attention of the Court to poor hygienic conditions in the city.