The Indian Express                23.04.2013

HC asks JMC body to provide amenities to 2 lakh people off its limits

Gujarat High Court (HC) Monday ordered the Jamnagar Municipal
Corporation (JMC) to provide basic civic amenities to around 2 lakh
people living in the vicinity of the corporation. The area, however,
does not fall under the JMC limits. The court has also ordered the state
government’s Urban Development Department to take a decision on whether
it wants to include these people under a new nagarpalika or merge them
with the JMC within four weeks.

The court passed the judgment while acting on a public interest
litigation (PIL) by a local resident of Jamnagar and member of Jamnagar
District Panchayat, Kasam Khati.

Senior counsel B B Naik who appeared as Khati’s lawyer before a
division bench of HC, said that there were certain gram panchayats
outside the limits of JMC before 2003-04. However, some of them were
merged with the JMC in 2003-04 and some were left out.

They were called Nagar Sim areas and were deprived of basic civic
amenities like drinking water, street light, roads and sanitation.
Until 2010-11, there was no registration of deaths and births in these
areas. Several representations in this regard before the authorities
were not heard. “The Jamnagar Urban Development Authority had written to
the Urban Development Department in this regard. But no action was
taken by the state government,” Naik said. Following this, the petitioner lodged the PIL.