Chandigarh, Oct 23: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has pulled up the Chandigarh administration for failing to clarify what action has been taken against officials of the Sector 26 market committee over poor sanitation and encroachments at the city’s main fruit and vegetable market.
The directive came after the administration filed an affidavit in response to the court’s earlier suo motu notice on unhygienic conditions, garbage heaps, and waterlogged, encroached lanes at the mandi.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry noted that while the administration had penalised outsourced cleaning contractors, it had failed to address the responsibility of its own officers. “The affidavit is silent with regard to the role of the officers and employees of the market committee, who had failed to discharge their duties of supervising and ensuring that no such encroachment or littering takes place,” the bench observed.
The court said punitive action against private agencies alone was not enough and directed the administration to submit another affidavit specifying measures taken against negligent officials. “Let another affidavit be filed so as to disclose what action has been taken against inactive employees of Sector 26 mandi,” the order stated.
The matter will be taken up again on November 10.
