Plea in HC alleging lockdown violation by CWG village residents, hearing on Apr 27

The Delhi High Court has agreed to hear a plea alleging violation of lockdown and social distancing norms by the residents of Commonwealth Games (CWG) village near Akshardham Temple here.

The plea was mentioned for urgent hearing before the registrar and it has been allowed for listing on April 27.

The application, filed by one of the CWG village residents, alleged that there was repeated violation of national lockdown directives by the residents who are regularly going out for walk in the adjacent DDA park, not maintaining social distancing and also not wearing the mandatory marks.

The application was filed in a pending petition relating to RWA elections and the high court had earlier appointed a retired district judge as the nodal officer who was permitted to act to the limited extent of making payment of essential service charges.

The plea, filed by advocate Joby P Varghese, sought direction to permit the nodal officer to close the access gate from CWG village to the adjacent DDA park and to take all measure to ensure strict compliance of lockdown directives and also to report the instances of violation to the concerned local district administration authorities.

It said that due to the severe violations by certain residents of the village, an e-circular was issued by the finance management services agency, which is managing the operations and maintenance of the colony, directing the residents to stop visiting DDA parks and walks in the area but it did not yield any results.

The plea said since complete grocery shops are not available within the village, residents have to go to nearby markets at Mayur Vihar, Pandav Nagar and Ganesh Nagar for buying essential items or get them delivered from there.

Many of the areas in close proximity to these places are declared corona hotspots by the Delhi government. In such circumstances, the continued access of public places like parks in large numbers by village residents and mingling with other residents within the village is a serious threat to the safety and security of all residents in the village and is also in complete violation of the lockdown conditions, it alleged.