Civic bodies taste Hyderabad High Court ire

Hyderabad: Pointing out negligence by the GHMC and HMWS&SB, a vacation bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday directed the two civic bodies and the TS Home department to file counter affidavits on death of two labourers in a manhole in the city.

A division bench comprising Justice A. Rajasekhar Reddy and Justice A. Shankar Narayana, while dealing with a suo motu taken up case on death of the two labourers observed that the negligence of authorities of both the bodies in responding to calls and complaints from people with regard to blockages in drainage has been forcing people to engage private labourers to clean their drainage.

The bench asked the authorities to submit details of calls received from the people and how many of them were attended by the staff of the civic bodies to resolve the problem.

The bench also asked the authorities to place the rules and regulations for cleaning of drainage before the court and also informed the court by next date of hearing whether or not compensation has been received by the family members of the deceased.

T. Sudhakar Reddy, counsel for the Metro Water Board told the court that the Board has not received any complaint from the locals where the two workers were killed.

He said that the Board has awarded Rs 2 lakh each to the families of the victims.
The bench, while issuing the notices, directed the GHMC, Water Board and TS Home department to file counter affidavits and posted the case to next week.

HC suspends state order on gram panchayats
A vacation bench comprising Justice A. Rajasekhar Reddy and Justice A. Shankar Narayana of the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday suspended the operation of a GO issued by the TS government dissolving Meerpet, Jillelaguda, Balapur, Jalpally and Pahadi Sharif Gram Panchayats and notifying them as municipalities.

The bench was dealing with an appeal by T. Vikram Reddy, challenging the dismissal of his writs by a single judge. Mr Reddy contended that the government did not follow due procedure and notice for dissolution cannot be given to a gram panchayat secretary as he would never oppose the move since he will be a government employee.

Regular bench to hear MLA PIL
A vacation bench comprising Justice A. Rajasekhar Reddy and Justice A. Shankar Narayana of the Hyderabad High Court on Thursday refused to hear a PIL moved by TD leader A. Revanth Reddy and asked the Registry to post it before the regular bench after the summer vacation.

The TD leader, in his PIL, wanted the court to declare the state government allocating million of litres of water to the soft drink companies and beer manufacturers when the state is reeling under worst possible drought as illegal, and in violation of Article 21 and 47 of the Constitution and also the National Water Policy.

He also urged the court to direct the authorities concerned to  preserve the water proposed to be used by beverages companies to be utilised for daily use of citizens.

In his PIL, Mr Reddy said that authorities have been supplying 1,512 million litres of water to the beverage companies while 14,818 villages in the state were reeling from drought.

The bench noticed that the content in the plea of the petitioner was of public interest and it would be difficult for the vacation bench to take a PIL in view of lot of other urgent matters to be looked into.