“It is good that the Chief Minister has woken up after one year…Though he blames the previous government for the garbage problem, we do not know what he has done in the last one year…,” observed the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday.
Observing that the problem has assumed gigantic proportions again as every authority had taken directions issued by the court lightly, a Division Bench comprising Justice N. Kumar and Justice B.V. Nagarathna hoped that the BBMP would be able to overcome the problem. “Now that the CM has woken up and set a six-month deadline, let the Government not sleep for next six months…,” the Bench said in an oral observation.
“Karnataka is ruled by great men. The rulers of the day will have to take note of this mafia and nip it in the bud or it may shake their seats and we want to know what steps were taken to curtail this mafia so that law-abiding citizens are not discouraged,” the Bench while making it clear it would monitor every week the progress made in solving the garbage menace.
Pointing out that the government is “surrendering” to rowdy elements and acts only when people resort to agitations and take law into their hands, the court said that some “busybodies” take advantage when the government fails to take timely action. If the MLAs and the councillors are coming in the way of schemes for solving garbage problem with Court’s directions issued in public interest, they should be shown their place, the Bench said. “No constituency is the ancestral properties of MLA,” the Court observed.
Stating that there is prima facie truth in the allegation that the main reason for the garbage problem is BBMP officials, who are hand-in-glove with elected representatives and the police, the Bench asked the Commissioner to set his house right as the Chief Minister has now acted on the issue.
