Patna high court pulls up PMC for failure to remove encroachments

PATNA: The Patna high court on Friday pulled up the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) for its failure to remove encroachments in several areas of the city.
Hearing a PIL filed by Vikash Chandra alias Guddu Baba, the division bench of Chief justice Rajendra Menon and Justice A K Upadhyay said the PMC failed to provide a permanent solution to the encroachment problem and whatever action it takes, encroachments resurface again.The petitioner had submitted that encroachment on roads and footpaths in several areas of Patna was creating nuisance and hindrance in traffic movement.
“Let the PMC commissioner file a counter affidavit within four weeks, along with a working plan that what steps the municipal body will take to ensure removal of encroachments permanently,” the chief justice ordered.
He also questioned the PMC’s intention that how much assistance it took in the past from the district administration for removing encroachments. He also ordered the PMC to inform the court about the assistance it requires from the district administration for the purpose.
Shifting of railway yard: The Patna high court, while hearing a PIL filed by Mahesh Agarwal, asked the Indian Railways to file a status report on shifting of yard at Raxaul in East Champaran within the next six months. The division bench disposed of the PIL and ordered the railway authorities to submit the report to the HC registrar general.
The petitioner had urged the court to give directions to the railway authorities to remove the dumping yard at Raxaul where wagons loaded with coal dust and fly ash from all over the country reach and dumped. The two materials are byproducts of iron and steel factories in India and are purchased by the several cement factories functional in Nepal.
The Bihar State Pollution Control Board had submitted an affidavit that the dumping of coal dust and fly ash was badly affecting the health and environment in two kilometres radius. The petitioner had also mentioned that the products were causing ailments like lung cancer in the area.
The railways informed the court that they had already allotted work to a contractor for construction of a new yard at Ramgarhwa, a sparsely populated area, for dumping of coal dust and fly ash, but the work was delayed and was not going on due to floods.
Rectify errors for recruitment: The HC, while hearing a PIL filed by one Sudhir Kumar Ojha, ordered the state government to submit a report within four weeks for recruitment of lecturers, readers and professors in ayurvedic, unani and homeopathic colleges in the state. Ojha’s counsel Vijay Kumar Singh said the government was not rectifying the errors in the requisition proposal being sent to Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) due to which the BPSC returned the proposals several times in the last two years. Singh said there were huge number of vacancies in these colleges.
Govt aided schools and colleges: The HC granted two weeks additional time to the state government to submit a reply on why it had not formed a tribunal for redressing grievances in at least 1,000 government aided private schools and colleges running in the state. One Sudhanshu Singh, in his PIL, submitted that the government in 2015 had taken a decision for forming a tribunal to resolve all disputes arising from such educational institutes.
Encroachment in forest area: The high court granted four weeks’ time to Nalanda and Kaimur district magistrates to submit reply on clearing encroachment in the forest areas in the two districts. Guddu Baba submitted in his PIL that 1.3 hectare in Nalanda and 352 acre of forest area in Kaimur were encroached. The forest department submitted in its counter affidavit that they were unable to remove the encroachments.
Public convenience: Hearing a PIL filed by lawyer Manibhushan Pratap Sengar, the court ordered him to submit within two weeks the photographs of the poor and unhygienic public and deluxe toilets in Patna. The court was not satisfied with the PMC counter affidavit and ordered Urban Development and Housing Department (UDHD) to submit a report on all public urinals.
Forged bail: The high court on Friday granted two additional months time to CBI to submit the status report on its investigation in the case of attempt to seek bail by murder accused Munchun Kumar Rai in 2016 by forging documents. On August 3, CBI standing council Bipin Kumar Sinha had sought three weeks’ time to submit the status report in the case. The counsel on Friday pleaded for more time on which Chief Justice Menon remarked, “If the court grants you three months’ time, you will sleep for one month and start working only after that.” The murder took place in 2013 under Beur police station and two accused in the case came out of jail on forged bail.
AIIMS-P irregularities: Hearing a PIL filed by Delhi-based NGO Janhit Abhiyan, the high court listed the matter for hearing after six months. Representing the NGO, Ashhar Mustafa said the Ashok Committee and Arya Committee formed by the central government found massive administrative and financial irregularities in AIIMS-Patna. Mustafa said irregularities were found in faculty recruitment, reservation policy and unauthorized post creation. He said PIL was aimed at seeking court orders for implementing the committees’ directions.