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On Monday, the Supreme Court observed that it was “unfortunate and tragic” that the Centre had refused to grant any payment towards the sanitation crisis arising out of the strike by sanitation workers of East Delhi Municipal Corporation over the issue of regular payment of salaries.
During the hearing, the Bench, comprising of Justice MB Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta, noted that on October 3, Advocate Rahul Mehra, appearing for the Delhi Government had submitted that an amount of Rs. 500 crores will be released within two days for the purpose of tiding up the present sanitation crisis. Mr. Mehra now submits that this amount had been released.
However, The court noted that while it had expected the Central Government to “graciously reciprocate the offer put forward by the Delhi Government on humanitarian grounds, the Centre had now submitted that it was never ready to make any payment.
Lamenting the submission, the bench then listed the matter for 24 October.
The Court is hearing a suomotu petition related to the death of a seven-year-old kid, who was suffering from dengue in 2015. According to reports, the child was allegedly refused treatment by five private hospitals, due to which his devastated parents committed suicide.
During the hearing of this petition, the Court was informed that the vector-borne diseases were rising due to poor management of solid waste in the country. Furthermore, it had been told that since sanitation workers were abstaining from work in East Delhi, a huge amount of garbage had piled up in the area.
Consequently, on July 10, the court gave one final opportunity to all States and UTs to comply with the laws governing solid waste management. This was after the Court observed that despite two years having passed since the notification of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, approximately more than two-third of the States and UTs had still not complied with the requirements under the Rules.
Then last month, It had stayed construction activities in a few States and Union Territories (UTs), until a policy was framed by them under the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.
The direction was issued after the Bench comprising of Justice MB Lokur and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer castigated some States and UTs for their “pathetic attitude” in having delayed the formulation of a policy until this moment.
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