Lack of coordination among agencies reason for half of Delhi's

The Delhi High Court today directed all agencies concerned to hold a meeting to make a traffic plan for highly polluted Anand Vihar area here, saying that lack of coordination among local authorities is the reason for half of the city's problems.
The observation by a bench of Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Ashutosh Kumar came during hearing of a PIL on air pollution in Delhi in which the court has been dealing with traffic congestion and lack of cleanliness in Anand Vihar, which has the worst air quality in the national capital.
"Half of the problems of Delhi is due to lack of coordination among local authorities," the court said and directed that a meeting be held of all stakeholders to devise a traffic management plan for the area.

Representatives of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation, Traffic Police, the transport department, the Public Works Department (PWD), Delhi Metro, the railways and the resident commissioner of Uttar Pradesh will attend the meeting on February 20 at the Traffic Police Headquarters, it said.
With regard to the corporation's claim of having removed the hawkers and encroachments from the main road, the service road, pavements and the foot overbridge there, the civic body and Delhi Police have been directed to ensure the vacated areas are not re-occupied.
The bench noted that from the photographs of the area placed before it, the railway station in the area was also not free of garbage and debris and directed Northern Railway to clean it up on a war-footing.

A direction was also issued to the Irrigation Department of the Delhi government to come out with a plan for cleaning, including possibility of filtering and proper management of the drain running along road no. 56 there.

PWD has been tasked with ensuring repair of the roads and pavements under its control in the area.
The Inter-State Bus Terminal (ISBT) has also to be cleaned and repaired, wherever required, the court told the Delhi government.
A similar direction was issued to the resident commissioner of UP with regard to the bus terminus at Kaushambi so that there is no congestion leading to traffic problems in Delhi.

The National Highways Authority of India was ordered by the court to ensure the highways constructed by it are kept free of garbage, debris and dust to the extent possible.
During the hearing, the court perused the internal audit
reports of the forest department for 2011, 2012 and 2013 and noted that while there was an increase from Rs 1,000 to Rs 34,000 in the charge for permission to cut a tree, the compensatory plantation expenses have not increased, which may indicate that sufficient plantation may not have taken place.
Under the rules, for every tree cut, the person or authority responsible has to plant 10 trees.

For permission to cut a tree, a charge of Rs 34,000 and Rs 57,000 per tree is levied on an individual or agency, respectively. Almost 50 per cent of this amount is refunded after five years if compensatory afforestation has been carried out.
Delhi government standing counsel Rahul Mehra said that the cost of plantation has not increased commensurate with the hike in tree felling charges and that was the reason for lack of increase in the compensatory plantation expenses.
After ordering a CAG audit, the court said the government auditor may look into the internal audit reports of the forest department which were placed before the bench.

The Delhi government, meanwhile, was directed to indicate on the next date of hearing on April 12 "as to how notified forests are to be maintained and how forest land is to be reclaimed where there are encroachments".
The Delhi Development Authority was asked to cooperate with the Delhi government for ensuring that its plans for maintenance of forests are implemented.
On the issue of bursting of fireworks, the court questioned how the practice is going on despite a direction of the Supreme Court in November 2016 banning the activity in the National Capital Region and an order of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC).

The bench said that the apex court should be informed about the violation of its directions.