Hyderabad: HC grills GHMC chief for nearly 2 hours

Rajendranagar: Firing a flurry of questions at GHMC Commissioner Lokesh Kumar on Wednesday, the Chief Justices of High Court, while hearing the case of polluting and illegal industries in Shastripuram residential colony, asked him to explain the reasons of inaction on part of officials all these years.

Asking for pardoning the mistake of submitting a flawed report in the court, the Commissioner said, "we will take appropriate measures and work to set things right in the colony henceforth."

The illegal industrial units gradually occupy the entire residential area and operating there with full impunity since several years. It is hard to believe that officials are having no knowledge of the industrial operations in a residential colony," asserted the court.

Asking the Commissioner to show the reason behind rapid increase of the units in the colony since 2012, the year when the GHMC took up demolition drive for the first time, the CJ noted that the Lok Ayokta's order to evacuate the illegal units three years ago was also not implemented.

Grilling the Commissioner for almost two hours, the court also inquired about the number of industries that were granted permissions and on what basis, they were considered in the residential colony.

"Have you people gone into coma all these years? You never acted against those units with litter and spirit and simply allow them to flourish instead," chided the CJ. There are people, schools full of with children in and around the colony. Will you raise your family in such a hazardous condition? Due to these industries the residents are suffering from different kind of health issues," said the court.

"I want the entire details of measures taken by the GHMC in the last 8 years to be place before the court before next hearing specifying the reasons for not taking action all these days," the CJ ordered. The court also concurred with the argument of counsel for the petitioners Advocate Pushpendar Kaur that "GHMC must provide compensation to all the victims suffered with different health issues due to existence of polluting and scrap industries in the colony." The Court said it would again send the member-secretary soon after the action taken by the GHMC after one month to ascertain the ground reality.

When the counsel for the petitioners informed also informed the court about how the stay orders were coming to rescue of the illegal and polluting industries in Shastripuram Colony, the CJ ordered the registrar to issue a circular to all the judges immediately, asking them not to grant any stay order if anyone came to challenge the notices issued by the GHMC and other agencies.

At one point, the Commissioner tried to explain to the court that there were Illegal constructions in the area and that the owners were leasing out their properties for good returns. To this, the court said: "It is also your duty. This will not be the situation if you have acted well on time."

The court also asked the electricity officials to be present in the court on next date of hearing when the counsel of petitioner raised the issue of infringement of power by the industries. "The industrial units in and around the area are getting power on par with industries but are paying meager charges for the same managing the local electricity officials," it said. Ordering appropriate measures to evacuate all the units and asking officials concerned to come back with a compliance report by the next hearing, the CJ posted the matter to April 7.