Observing that Dwarka has not been cleaned up despite judicial orders, the Delhi High Court today asked senior officials of the police department, municipal corporation and DDA to show cause why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them.
A bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Jayant Nath asked the officials to file their reply indicating work done by each of them and why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them, saying, "We are giving you a long rope, so either save yourself or hang yourself."
The court gave them four weeks to file their reply and listed the matter for hearing on January 11 next year.
Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) urged the court to wait for some time before passing such an order as the officials concerned would be demoralised by it.
The bench, however, refused to heed their pleas and said the officials would be "energised" into action by the order.
Justice Ahmed also said he was "demoralised" after seeing the photographs of lack of cleanliness shown by petitioner and Dwarka resident Ebbani Aggarwal, as pigs were seen to be roaming around in the waste littered at some places.
The court said it felt sorry for the "poor cattle" which would eat the polythene bags to get at the food inside and added, "Our order of today is absolutely right."
At the start of the hearing, DDA told the court it was facing a "serious cash crunch" post demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes and was unable to pay its daily wage labourers.
However, despite this problem it was getting work done to clean up the sub-city, DDA said.
To this, the court said that DDA can pay its workers by cheque.
The court had on November 16 voiced dissatisfaction over the civic agencies' efforts to clean up the national capital, saying that the "officialdom" was preventing compliance with its orders to periodically remove rubble and garbage from public areas, especially in Dwarka sub-city.
It had given the civic bodies a final opportunity till November 24 to "come good with their promise" to clean up Dwarka and had sought names of all senior officials of SDMC, DDA and Delhi Police who were responsible for the area.
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