New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) Ahead of Commonwealth Games, the Delhi High Court Monday pulled up the civic agencies over poor sanitation in the capital.
Referring to a Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) report which alleged that sanitation in the capital was going from bad to worse, Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Ajit Bharioke said: “The report portrays a dismal picture and in fact shows deterioration in the maintenance levels on the sanitation and landfill sites. This is when we are on the anvil of the Commonwealth Games.”

The court directed the Commissioner of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), medical officer of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and the Secretary of the Delhi Cantonment Board to file affidavits explaining their stand on the CPCB report and action they would take in eight weeks after inspecting the sites.

Advocate Ashok Agarwal, counsel in the case, told the bench: “We are preparing ourselves for the Commonwealth Games and it’s horrible that the civic agencies do not even perform their basic duty. It’s a violation of the rights of citizens, especially women, who have no option but to defecate in the open.”

The pathetic state of public toilets was highlighted by Shahana Sheikh, a final year student of economics at Lady Sri Ram College who undertook a tour of slums and the outskirts of Delhi from May to July 2008.

According to Sheikh, the MCD, in its 2007 report claims that there are 3,192 public conveniences in the national capital but she found only 1,534 toilets in her survey.