PMC administrator to file showcause

PATNA: Issue of Patna Municipal Corporation administrator AB Prasad being absent, in spite of the express direction of Justice R S Garg of the Patna High Court, is an example of the casual attitude of the bureaucrats towards the court and the rule of law. The malaise, in fact, is much deeper.
This was observed by Justice Garg of the Patna High Court on Thursday while rejecting the showcause of the PMC administrator expressing apology for his absence from court, as the judge found it unsatisfactory and asked him to file a fresh showcause.
Prasad was not in the court during the last hearing as directed by Justice Garg during the hearing of a petition against municipal poll in ward no 45. Prasad, while apologising, had said that he had sought the permission of PMC counsel Chandrasekhar. The judge told him he has to obey the court, not his counsel. His excuse was, therefore, found to be unsatisfactory.
Prasad again upset the court by asking for postponement when later Justice Garg fixed May 14 as the date of next hearing. The judge reminded him that justice was solemn business and he should not take it lightly.
This is not the lone occasion when the court has been forced to be so strict. The high court has been saddled with thousands of contempt cases against government officers for flouting the judgment passed in various cases. Recently, it had to issue a contempt notice to the entire Bihar cabinet to ensure the payment of salary to the teachers of a college.
The Patna High Court Had directed the government to shift the bus stand from the Hardinge Park to the New Bypass Road. However, the government sat over it for almost three years, and only when the senior secretaries were threatened with jail, they got into action.
However, the government continues to flout the court’s directive on removal of encroachments, supply of drinking water, cleaning of drains, movement of vehicles, management of schools and many other with impunity forcing the court to monitor it continuously.
PMC report on drains’ desilting: A division bench of the Patna High Court, comprising Justice Nagendra Rai and Justice Ravi S Dhavan, on Thursday while hearing a PIL by advocate Shyam Kishore Sharma found the report of the PMC about desilting of drains prior to the monsoon unsatisfactory. The high court has ensured the removal of sludge impeding the movement of water in the drains during the last few years. The silt and garbage choking it led to the overflowing of rain water on Patna roads. However, even years after the monitoring of case, the progress is unsatisfactory.
Sharma informed the court that the report of the PMC is patently wrong. The PMC has on its own admission used manual labour instead of heavy machines in many places. Except in some stretches, the desilting has been quite perfunctory, he added.
Basant Chaudhary joined to inform the court that the Patel Nagar-Anandpuri drain has not been desilted at all. Similar complaints were heard from lawyers of different localities. Lawyers also complained of the waste left on the flanks of the drains creating unhygienic condition.