The Times of India 16.09.2010
HC gives MCD extension to relocate illegal dairies
NEW DELHI: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi drew the Delhi high court’s ire on Wednesday for seeking a year-long extension for ending the cattle menace in the capital by relocating illegal dairies to a place earmarked on the city fringes.
Reluctantly allowing an extension, a division bench of chief justice Dipak Misra and justice Manmohan warned that concerned MCD officials will find themselves behind bars for committing contempt of court if they are unable to honour the deadline this time. Their job is to complete the process for relocation of all illegal dairies from urban areas of the city to Ghogha Dairy Colony within a year.
Interestingly, this is for the third time the MCD has sought an extension from HC since the court in May 2007, ordered for relocation of illegal dairies by August 31, 2008, with a compliance report.
The court’s direction came on an application filed by MCD seeking extension of time for one more year claiming the civic agency is developing Ghogha Dairy Colony where 2,080 plots are available and applications were sought from the dairy owners for allotment.
“Due to certain unavoidable circumstances, the relocation process could not be completed within the timeframe fixed by HC,” the counsel for MCD submitted. The “circumstances” can be gleaned in the application filed by the civic agency blaming the Delhi government officials like SDM and Tehsildars for not furnishing timely clarifications on the veracity of applicants who have applied for plots in the dairy. Earlier, the MCD had received around 1,400 applications out of which, nearly half were found to be of bogus applicants, who possessed no dairies in Delhi and had only applied to get land.
As per the application, MCD wrote to SDMs and Tehsildars seeking more clarification on the remaining genuine contenders, but there was no proper response causing delay. Other factors contributing to delay, as per MCD are the failure of Delhi Jal Board and NDPL to ensure water and power supply to the Ghogha Village dairies.
While MCD sought HC’s directions to each of these authorities to help it with completing the process of dairy relocation, HC refused to intervene, saying it is for the agency to get its work done.
The bench was hearing a PIL filed by an NGO Common Cause through lawyer Meera Bhatia. In 2002, the court had directed MCD to shift the dairies from urban areas of the city as the stray cattle were causing traffic hazards.
After a few years, for non-compliance of the order, some applications were filed before the court, to which the division bench had in May 2007, directed compliance of the 2002 order and shift illegal dairies by August 31, 2008.
