HC seeks ‘concrete results’ from Chief Secretary

Refers to projects taken up in the past two or three years to address city’s problems

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday told Chief Secretary T.M. Vijay Bhaskar that it wants ‘concrete results’ from the schemes or plans that were taken up in the past two or three years by the different civic agencies to address various problems, including maintenance of roads, stormwater drains, entry of sewerage into lakes, etc., that are plaguing the city from many years.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice S.G. Pandit summoned Mr. Vijay Bhaskar on Tuesday morning during the hearing of a PIL petition, filed in 2014 by Citizens Action Group on the problems of stormwater drains and entry of sewerage into lakes, after the bench was informed that the Chief Secretary heads a coordination committee set up in 2015 to address various issues related to the city.

Nominated

The bench nominated Senior Counsel Aditya Sondhi as an independent member of the coordination committee for assisting the members as well as briefing the court on its activities in resolving the city’s problems.

Though the coordination committee exists since 2015, the purpose of setting up such a committee has not yielded the expected result, the bench told the Chief Secretary while pointing out that shortcomings in execution of works are too many and what is needed urgently is expediting the process and adopting a proper course of action to achieve quick results.

The bench directed the Chief Secretary to convene a meeting of the coordination committee on September 26 to initiate steps to expedite various works that are already in the pipeline.

The court observed that it cannot delegate the responsibility of addressing the city’s problem to any officer other than the Chief Secretary, as the city has to be restored to its past glory with a coordinated effort from all the government agencies.

Earlier, the court orally pointed out that coordination was lacking in addressing the various problems of the city. Though there are multiple committees or planning bodies for the city, existence of many such panels itself would come in the way of implementation of plans.