Delhi High Court forms committee to examine, reform city's administrative, physical, financial infrastructure

The Delhi High Court on Friday constituted a committee to revamp and reform the administrative, financial and physical infrastructure in the national capital [Kutumb through its Trustee v State of NCT of Delhi & Ors]..A Division Bench Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela passed the order after noting that Delhi is going from one crisis to another and multiple authorities in the city are only passing the buck.The Court said that the Committee will be headed by the Delhi Chief Secretary and will have the Delhi Police Commissioner, the Vice-Chairman of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi as its members.It has been ordered to hand over a report to the High Court within eight weeks.“Keeping in view the aforesaid there is no wonder Delhi is going from one crisis to another. One day there is a drought and the next day there is a flood. It is time that administrative, financial and physical infrastructure of Delhi is relooked at,” the Court observed..It stressed that there is a fundamental problem in the city of Delhi as its physical, financial and administrative infrastructure are all outdated and not in accordance with the requirements of the present day.“With population in excess of 3 crores, Delhi needs a more robust physical, financial and administrative infrastructure. Due to various subsidy schemes, the migration in Delhi is only increasing and its population is also increasing. The financial situation of MCD is not healthy… There are no funds with civic agencies to carry out major infrastructure projects. Physical infrastructure in Delhi was laid nearly 75 years ago. The infrastructure is not only inadequate but poorly maintained as well. Recent tragedies show that the orders of the court are not implemented and are treated as water over duck's back.”The Court also criticised the Delhi government for failing to hold a single cabinet meeting since March when Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case. .The Court passed the order while dealing with a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by an organisation named Kutumb seeking a high-level probe into the death of three civil services aspirants in the basement of a coaching center in Rajendra Nagar area.The High Court also expressed its displeasure over the Delhi Police probe in the incident and transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).