Delhi City News Archives

On the backfoot ever since the Delhi High Court ordered demolition of unauthorized constructions in the city, the MCD on Thursday came out all guns blazing and virtually accused the high court-appointed monitoring committee and court commissioners of exceeding their brief.

Senior advocate Harish Salve-appearing for the civic agency before a bench comprising Chief justice M K Sharma and Justice Rekha Sharma "launched a scathing attack on the two-member monitoring committee and the court commissioners appointed by HC to keep tabs on the ongoing demolitions, saying "they had no authority to issue directions and could only inform" the MCD or DDA about illegal constructions and it was for the high court to give directions.

Praying for clarification/modification of the high court order "vesting" power on the monitoring committee and commissioners, Salve said certain orders had given the impression that the two bodies could execute HC directions. "The committee and court commissioners are only eyes and ears of the court and have no role to play in implementing or executing HC directions " something only statutory bodies are empowered to do as per law," Salve said.

He argued that the committee and commissioners had no decision-making powers and could only "bring to the notice of the MCD commissioner or the police commissioner" the illegalities after which the "officers were not bound by their advice but will apply their mind acting as per law".

Saying "we can't supplant the established system", the senior advocate alleged the committee members and commissioners were misusing their powers. "It has been noticed that monitoring committee members including court commissioners were directing the senior officials of the MCD to report to them about the progress of the demolition drive. Now, they have no authority to direct or ask these officers to report to them. This is brazen misuse of HC orders," he submitted.

When the bench pointed out that a Supreme Court's appointed monitoring committee for sealing in the city was carrying out a similar exercise, Salve clarified that it reported to SC which then gave directions to MCD as and when required. He signed off by pleading for modification and said, "If some sentences in previous orders are excised, all friction between agencies would disappear".

Later, one of the court commissioners, Kirti Uppal defended the committee members and said they were only bringing gross violations to the court's notice even after which the MCD did nothing. The bench has now posted the matter for July 12 for Uppal to complete his arguments. A seven-member committee was constituted by a bench headed by the then acting Chief Justice Vijender Jain on May 18 last year to monitor the demolition drive in the Capital to remove the illegal constructions and decongest the city.

Park Now has Overgrown Grass, Fountains Thick with Sludge, Stinking Water

Modelled on Mysore's popular Brindavan Gardens, one would expect Chaudhary Charan Singh Udayan in Kalindi Kunj on the Delhi-Noida border to be an exotic destination for nature lovers.

But the 14-acre park is in a state of neglect. With overgrown grass, fountains thick with sludge, stinking water and a dozen stray dogs roaming all around, the unkempt park needs urgent attention. Most of the visitors return dejected as half the fountains, the USP of the garden, don't spring to life with myriad colours.

Though officials claim that the garden generates Rs.5 Lakh per month from the sale of tickets - Rs.20 per adult and Rs10 per child-, the authorities have done little for its upkeep. In additionl, the Uttar Pradesh irrigation department, which looks after the park, also charges visitors Rs.10 and Rs.200 to walk in with still and video cameras respectively.

"For a park which boasts of beautiful lights and fountains by night, including a musical one, as its selling point, it is strange that it closes at 8:30 pm," says a visitor. However, department's executive engineer Rajiv Yadav has an explanation to offer for the park's early closing time: "Many young couples come in the garden and we do not want any trouble by keeping the park open till late in the night."

But what may have skipped the authorities' attention is that the fountains are not in right shape with loose electric wires at several places, making the place risky for children. Besides the usual complain of lack of cleanliness on the ground, which, it seems, is not swept regularly, the visitors also frown against the public display of affection (PDA) in the park.

Admitting that maintenance of the park has not been the best in the recent past, Yadav says: "we are trying to streamline this. We are getting a new restaurant, in place of the current canteen, which has fixed exorbitant rates for everything. The fast food chain, Fast-trax, will set up an air conditioned outlet in the park very soon. Things will get better."

The visitors hope that they will get to see the garden in fall bloom very soon, especially because its potential is huge. Being located right next to the Yamuna barrage and a bird sanctuary, the place has the added advantage of being home to exotic birds, like migratory flamingos, in the winter.

Source: TNN