Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike officials responsible for upkeep of D.J. Halli area may not get their salary if they failed get the place cleaned.
A Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court comprising Chief Justice D.H. Waghela and Justice Ram Mohan Reddy passed an order that said that the court would direct the authorities concerned to withhold the salaries of officials failing to discharge their duties with regard to cleaning D.J. Halli. The Bench was hearing a PIL petition by P. Udaya Shankar and others complaining about the non-maintenance of roads, and lack of civic amenities at D.J. Halli resulting in health problems to the residents.
The counsel for the petitioners produced some photographs of D.J. Halli in the court to prove their point that area is unhygienic despite the court’s order on March 12 directing the authorities concerned to clear drains and clean roads on a war footing.
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However, the counsel for BBMP told the court that the officials did their work in ward number 47 Devara Jeevana Halli, and the photographs that were produced before the court were related to the adjoining ward number 47 (Muneshwara Nagar).
But the Bench asked whether the task of keeping the locality clean was not part of the officials’ duties while wondering why should the BBMP and its officials require court’s direction to discharge their duties. The Bench said that its earlier order was for cleaning the D.J. Halli area and not a particular ward.
The High Court Bench said if the area is not cleaned it would direct authorities to withhold salaries of officials for not discharging their duties