Delhi: SC asks police chief for timeline to clear traffic-bottlenecks
The Supreme Court yesterday directed the Delhi Police Commissioner, Amulya Patnaik, to come out with a timeline for removing traffic bottlenecks at 77 congested corridors in Delhi and also asked him to deal with impounded vehicles lying at police stations. "You want the city of Delhi to crack up? Everything which should not happen is happening in Delhi," the bench told a PWD official.
Bench refers to Sunny's iconic dialog of 'Tareekh pe Tareekh"
A bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta referred to a dialog in a Bollywood movie "tareekh pe tareekh" (date after date) about court proceedings and observed that nothing has happened on the issue even after 54 meetings were convened by the officials.
Bench reprimands Patnaik over ruining Delhi's reputation in the world
Referring to the recent submersion of a bus at Delhi's Minto Road, the bench said, "You cannot have buses going underwater at Minto Road. This news is coming in newspapers abroad. Can you imagine what it reflects about the capital of the most-emerging economy of the world?" The court said it cannot go on like this and timeline of work has to be finalized.
Additional Solicitor General says several agencies involved other than police
Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand said several agencies were involved in the matter and it was not confined to only the Delhi Police. To this, the bench said, "We are asking you about timeline for the third time. In front of Nizamuddin Police Station, you are not able to remove the junk. Cars and vehicles are lying over there. What have you done?"
Bench asks police to de-congest police stations
When Anand said there was "congestion in court also", the bench asked Patnaik as to what he proposes to do to deal with the situation. "Do you have some policy for the vehicles which are impounded and are lying in the police stations," the bench asked. Patnaik said that such vehicles were case property items and they've taken steps to de-congest the police stations.
Delhi Police gets four weeks to come out with timeline
The bench gave four weeks time to the Delhi Police commissioner to come out with the timeline and policy on impounded items lying at police stations in the national capital. The apex court also asked the other agencies concerned to cooperate in the matter, so that issues flagged in February last year on traffic bottlenecks could be dealt with.
Court had earlier slammed the police for the traffic bottlenecks
On July 20, the court sought the presence of Patnaik to explain the bottlenecks in implementing the recommendations of the task force for removing encroachments and traffic congestion. It had also taken umbrage to an affidavit filed by the Delhi government in the matter and had observed that despite orders, no specific timeline had been given for removing traffic bottlenecks and encroachments in Delhi.
Delhi govt earlier gave details of congested corridors to SC
The Delhi government had earlier told the apex court that under category "A", there were 28 highly congested corridors, while category "B" has 30 congested corridors. The rest 19 "less congested" corridors were placed under category "C".
