New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Wednesday hit out at Delhi government’s “freebie culture” over the death of three civil services aspirants in the basement of the Rau’s IAS coaching centre due to flooding in Old Rajindra Nagar on July 27. The Delhi high court also directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) commissioner, deputy commissioner of Police (DCP) and investigating officer to appear in the court on Friday, news agency PTI reported.
The Delhi high court directed authorities to remove all encroachments on drains in Centre Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar area by Friday.
The court made the observation while hearing a plea seeking constitution of a high-level committee to probe into the Rajinder Nagar incident. The matter to be heard next at 2:30pm on Friday.
A division bench of acting chief justice Manmohan and justice Tushar Rao Gedela said because of the “freebie culture”, the government has no money to upgrade the infrastructure, particularly the city’s drainage system, in face of the exploding population of the city.
The court said the responsibility of the investigation needs to be fixed. “If it is not then we will transfer the investigation under some central agency. We will either bring it under CVC (CBI) or Lokpal we will bring under. We will like it to be done under some statutory mechanism. It will bring a larger picture. We will pass a straight order over there. Fixing responsibility in this case. This is a serious incident. It is infrastructure breakdown at the larger level. First, it’s a case of negligence,” the bench said.
The court sought for personal presence of the investigating officer, concerned DCP and MCD commissioner with all the relevant files on Friday at 2:30 pm.
Calling the incident as a “case of criminal neglect”, the court said the manner in which the probe is being carried out is “strange” as actions are being taken against “passerby” but the MCD officials have not been hauled up.
“Delhi police has arrested the by stander. A driver, it seems that someone has lost it. The police officer who are investigating the same, what are they doing? Only one MCD official has gone to jail. Someone needs to be held accountable at the end of the day. You (MCD) need to fix responsibility,” the court said.