The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the Arvind Kejriwal government to file a status report on a plea seeking immediate measures like free ration, medical assistance, sanitary provisions and other essentials at Yamuna flood relief camps.
The plea was filed seeking direction to the government to notify the flood as a natural disaster under National Disaster Management Act, 2005, provide immediate cash assistance of Rs 50,000 for those who lost their belongings and shelter.
A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Saurab Banerjee asked the Delhi government to file a status report on the matter.
Acknowledging that the petitioner’s case is genuine, the bench listed the matter for hearing on September 13.
During the hearing, Standing Counsel for the AAP government, Santosh Tripathi took an objection with the details of the petition being aired in the media even before it came up for hearing before the court.
“It reflects differently in the public domain… It is as if the government is not doing anything,” the counsel stated.
He further said that the petitioner never approached the authorities and that the government has been providing financial assistance to the affected people.
Former Assistant Professor of Azim Premji University, Akash Bhattacharya, who has moved the PIL, has contended that it is the most devastating calamity that has occurred in Delhi since the year 1978.
The PIL read: “That the lackadaisical response from authorities cost the livelihood of hundreds of poor and destroyed their sole shelter which contained household items to important documents which proves the existence of the concerned.
“The Delhi government has a constitutional as well as statutory obligation to provide immediate assistance to the victims of natural calamity under the relevant Act, and that the flood will constitute a disaster under the relevant section 2(d) of the Act,” it said.
The Yamuna river in the national capital is flowing around one metre above the danger mark, at 206.35m, officials said on Sunday.
The river broke a 45-year-old record and reached its highest level at 208.65 metres on July 13. As a result of the flood in Delhi, several low-lying areas were submerged, and many roads were flooded.
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