Refreshments at meeting, but no steps to curb dengue: SC

The Supreme Court, which made a stinging criticism of the handling of dengue and chikungunya menace in Delhi today, was also irked over serving of refreshments at yesterday's meeting between the Lieutenant Governor and Delhi government on the issue as it expressed disappointment over its outcome.
"If we knew what is required to be done, we would have done it. We would not have had tea and snacks," a bench of Justices M B Lokur and Amitava Roy said.
When the bench was informed by Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar that Delhi's health secretary was present in the courtroom, the bench asked, "what do you say sir. ... What about the tea? It must have been served in the meeting."

The officer said "refreshments were served in the meeting".
To this, the bench asked "what were the refreshments served?"
When the official said that tea, coffee and biscuits were served during the meeting, the bench shot another query: "Was the refreshment served when the meeting was in progress?"

The official replied in the affirmitive and said that discussions were going on in the meeting.
The bench was irked with the minutes of meeting placed before it and said nothing substantive had taken place. "We have gone through the minutes of meeting held yesterday and we are quite disappointed with the outcome," it said.

However, the SG, Delhi government and amicus curiae Colin Gonsalves told the bench that the authorities would convene another meeting today and discuss all issues pertaining to steps required to be taken to curb dengue and chikungunya.
"We expect the participants to keep the interests of the people of Delhi in mind and look out at the entire exercise in a positive manner and think about the future rather than the past. We also expect the efforts to be consultative, collaborative and cooperative," the bench said.