HC asks civic bodies to collect waste from govt schools daily

Government-run schools stink.

Acting on such a complaint, the Delhi High Court today asked civic bodies to collect garbage on a daily basis from the schools run by the Delhi government and the municipal corporations here.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Navin Chawla issued the direction after it was informed that the government schools stink because the garbage thrown by students was not being cleaned.

"It's very unfortunate that the garbage is not lifted every day. It is, therefore, directed that the municipal corporations will ensure that garbage is removed and disposed of from the schools daily," the bench said.
 

It further asked the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to keep clean the schools, which fall under its jurisdiction.

Reminding the civic bodies and the council of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, which fixes liability on them to keep the city clean, the bench said the municipal corporations should not forget their functions.

It said garbage removal shall be effected on a daily basis and the authorities shall file a status report before August 3, the next date of hearing.

The court's directions came during the hearing of a plea filed by NGO Justice for All, through counsel Khagesh Jha, who urged the court to direct the authorities to make appropriate arrangements for daily collection and disposal of garbage from the premises of these schools.

To this, Delhi government counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi said whatever has been raised in the petition "is true and very unfortunate."

The petition claimed that multiple agencies in Delhi were busy shifting blame on each other and there was no coordination between them to improve the infrastructure for the students. It also dealt with the poor condition of toilets in these schools.

"The contracts of cleaning of toilets has been awarded to the lowest bidders and amount is so inadequate that it is almost impossible to clean the toilets. The staff appointed by the contractors are inadequate in number. As a result, the toilets are not clean," the plea added.