: Observing that it was practically impossible for it to allocate funds and monitor if road or sewerage systems were working or not, Madras High Court has directed the Secretary, Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department, to be present in court to assist the HC on 'proper administration.'
The First bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T S Sivagnanam stated this while expressing dissatisfaction over non-disposal of several representations made to the Departments by the public.
"We are exasperated by the number of petitions which are coming forth in the court only on various aspects of municipal Governance," the bench said.
The matter relates to a PIL filed by one D Sathiyamoorthy of Cuddalore District, seeking a direction to Panrutti Municipality to recruit eligible persons and fill up existing vacancies in the municipality.
The petitioner submitted that he had made several representations, including one on June 16 2015, to fill up the posts and restore normal administration of the municipality, which had not evoked any response. Hence he was constrained to file the PIL.
Sathiyamoorthy said municipality officials complain of acute manpower shortage whenever people approach them to obtain birth and death certificates.
The First Bench, before which the PIL came up yesterday, said when the petitioner approaches local authorities they are told there is shortage of funds and posts are lying vacant, due to whcih they are unable to perform their functions.
What was troubling them, the bench said,was that petitions are being filed daily and there did not appear to be any mechanism to address these problems at government level.
"We want an arrangement whereby these matters are addressed at the Municipal/government levels. Thus we call upon the Secretary concerned to file an affidavit in two weeks on what steps have been taken till now and what steps he proposes to take for the future to deal with these administrative issues."
The bench then posted the matter to Sept 30.
