HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Monday came down on the GHMC and the state government for not filing their responses in PILs that complained about the poor condition of amenities like sewage, roads and traffic issues.
A division bench comprising Justice A. Rajashekar Reddy and Justice T. Vinod Kumar said the civic authorities were irresponsible by not filing their explanation for four years. The court observed that the civic authorities neither respond to public grievances nor give reply to the court.
The bench was dealing with a batch of PILs and writ petitions related to civic authorities’ failure in complying their duties and not protecting lakes from encroachments by filling them.
One of the PILs took up the matter based on a Deccan Chronicle report, which highlighted the public suffering at Manikonda where more than half of the Manikonda-Pullaguda Pipeline Road was occupied by vendors. Manikonda resident Swathi Reddy had requested the authorities through the newspaper to stop the market or to move it to a different area.
Another issue was that autorickshaws and other vehicles were parked haphazardly on the U-turn road underneath the flyover at Toli Chowki.
Based on report along with photographs, the court took up a suo motu PIL.
Senior counsel L. Ravichander, representing one of the petitioners in a separate PIL, pointed out that two floods had occurred in the past one year and the government did not take any action pertaining to the same.
Giving last chance to the authorities, the court directed them to file counters within 15 days and the case was posted to October 18.
