No one wants to take responsibility: Delhi High Court pulls up authorities for dengue menace

The Delhi High Court has yet again expressed its displeasure about the failure of authorities to come up with a common protocol to check mosquito breeding and the spread of dengue in the national capital [Court on Its Own Motion v North Delhi Municipal Corporation and Ors]..A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Jasmeet Singh said it seemed as if no one wanted to be saddled with the responsibility or to stick their necks out to control the disease, because they knew they would fail..The Court was dealing with a suo motu petition initiated to control the spread of vector-borne diseases like dengue, chikungunya, and malaria in Delhi.As various authorities failed to file status reports in the matter, the judges said that nothing concrete was being done to control the disease and it was the same state of affairs every year.“Every year we have the same issue. How can it be? The steps you are proposing should have been achieved by now. It’s reality that stares us in the face and we have to do something,” Justice Singh remarked..The Bench was also unimpressed by non-compliance with its order dated February 25 by which Delhi’s Chief Secretary was directed to look into the aspect of increasing fines for violation of laws in relation to mosquito breeding.It was argued by the municipal authorities that, at present, the maximum fine they can impose on people found to be in violation of law is a meagre ₹500. They therefore sought a direction that the fine should be increased to ₹10,000.Justice Sanghi noted on Friday that even earlier, it had passed directions in this regard but nothing has been done, and the Court's requests were falling on deaf ears.The High Court, therefore, directed the Chief Secretary to file a specific affidavit in this regard failing which he shall remain personally present in court..It asked Amicus Curiae Rajat Aneja to understand the roles, responsibility and hierarchy of all the organisations concerned and then make suggestions about which officers should be made responsible for execution and implementation of duties.Directions were passed to all concerned organisations and bodies to formulate their own guidelines on the lines of the ones formulated by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, with details of their organisational, roles and responsibilities..The Court also took note of a document submitted by a research scholar named Raja Singh from the School of Planning and Architecture, where he had made several suggestions for making the buildings and structures in Delhi mosquito free.The judges said that the suggestions appeared useful and issued notice to the Delhi Development Authority, directing it to examine the suggestions and incorporate them in their building by-laws if they are found feasible..The matter will be heard next on April 22.