HC issues notice to Haryana on PIL alleging ‘abysmal’ civic infra

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today issued notice of motion to the state of Haryana on a petition filed in public interest, alleging, among other things, that Gurugram continued to suffer from “an abysmal state of civic infrastructure and uncollected garbage”. This, petitioner Gautam Dua contended, was despite “an astronomical expenditure of nearly Rs 1,800 crore over the last four years on sanitation and waste management”.

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Dua was seeking the setting aside of the allotment of contracts for door-to-door solid waste collection in three zones of Gurugram. Describing it as “illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional”, Dua submitted that the allotment was done “completely in an illegal manner, without public advertisement, competitive bidding, fixing of norms or through public fixation of rates”. It was also in gross violation of constitutional and procurement norms.

In the petition placed before the Bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry, counsel Amar Vivek also referred to news reports before adding that improvement in garbage management was not evident even after “such massive financial outlay” by the municipal corporation. Rampant inefficiency, lack of accountability and poor execution were plaguing the system.

“This not only underscores financial mismanagement and wastage of public funds, but also reflects the inability and unwillingness of the authorities to enforce performance standards on private agencies,” he submitted.

He added that the alarming civic breakdown in Gurugram was further evident from a series of damning news reports published between April 14 and May 22. “Till date, despite massive public funds being siphoned off, service delivery was collapsing and contractual terms being flouted with impunity, not a single officer of Municipal Corporation, Gurugram, has been held accountable. No show-cause notices, no internal inquiry and no criminal complaint has been initiated either against the company or against the officials who enabled this scam,” Vivek submitted. The case will now come up for further hearing on July 29.