New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday castigated the Delhi Lieutenant Governor (L-G) for his attitude of being “a superman” but doing nothing to get the “mountains of garbage” of the city cleared, with one of the dumping sites has even reached a height close to that of the Qutub Minar.
Terming the situation in Delhi as “absolutely bizarre”, the top court referred to the “mountains of garbage” at three landfill sites in Ghazipur, Okhla and Bhalswa, and said there was a 65-metre mound at Ghazipur which was “only eight metre less than the historic Qutub Minar”. A bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta also questioned the “attitude” of the L-G and said no official from his office had bothered to attend a meeting chaired by the Delhi’s health minister on the issue of solid waste management.
“Here nobody from the L-G office bothered to attend the meeting and he (L-G) says that I have the power and I am the ‘superman’,” the bench observed, adding “this is nothing but passing the buck. The (municipal) corporations are doing this, so it is their duty. Because I (L-G) am a powerful man, nobody can touch me and I will not do nothing. This is the attitude”.
Regarding the affidavits filed by the office of the L-G and the Delhi government, the bench said both of them have said that question of solid waste management in Delhi was the responsibility of the municipal corporations and the L-G has the authority to issue directions in this regard. “Is the office of the L-G responsible? As per your affidavit, the answer is yes. Then do not bring the Chief Minister into this,” the bench said.
