Delhi High Court today frowned at the dumping of construction material in large open spaces in the Dwarka sub-city here saying such rubble was the "biggest contributor to air pollution".
A bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva was also displeased over the lack of cleanliness in and around garbage dumps in the area and gave the South Delhi municipal corporation (SDMC) 15 days to clean them up.
It said the petitioner law student would examine if SDMC has complied with the direction and warned that failure to clean up the areas would result in disciplinary action against concerned officers and sanitary superintendents.
On the issue of maintenance of pavements and drainage in the sub-city, the bench directed Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to file a comprehensive status report indicating which footpaths were being properly maintained, which require work and what steps are being taken for that.
The report should also indicate steps taken to maintain drains in Dwarka, the bench said, while observing that the drainage in the sub-city required proper maintenance.
The court's directions came on a PIL on cleanliness in Dwarka filed by law student Ebbani Aggarwal who showed the bench pictures of garbage dumps surrounded by rubbish.
SDMC in its defence said it was cleaning up the 'dhalaos' and has installed view cutters around them, but people were throwing rubbish outside the structures.
The court, after perusing the pictures, observed that due to the view cutters people probably think the dump was closed and throw the garbage outside it and asked the SDMC not to put up the view cutters. It also noted that some dumps were inaccessible due to barriers and roads.
Meanwhile, DDA filed a status report stating that rubble and construction material was being dumped unauthorisedly by the local residents and SDMC was responsible for their removal.
On the issue of pavements and drainage maintenance, the authority has said that "most of the footpaths have been repaired and the drainage systems are also functional".
The court listed the matter for further hearing on February 3.
