Orissa HC pulls up state govt over PIL on waterlogging issue in Cuttack city

CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Thursday gave the state government ‘last opportunity’ to file a response to a special application filed in the four-year-old PIL which claimed waterlogging in Cuttack was caused by sheer inaction of authorities against rampant filling up of water bodies and tanks.

Expressing displeasure over the state government’s failure to file the response affidavit, the court fixed October 18 as the date for hearing the special application while allowing the Housing and Urban Development department, revenue divisional commissioner (Central Division) and Cuttack Municipal Corporation time till then to file the affidavit.

The division bench of Chief Justice Subhasis Talapatra and Justice AK Mohapatra warned, “It is absolutely made clear that if the affidavit is not filed then this court will be persuaded to take adverse inference and pass appropriate order for enforcement.”

Maitree Sansad, a city-based organisation which filed the PIL in 2019 had filed the special application earlier this month seeking a direction to RDC (Central Division) to take steps to combat waterlogging which is an outcome of sheer inaction of authorities against rampant filling up of water bodies and tanks.

Acting on it, the court had on September 11 allowed the authorities concerned to file response affidavit by September 21, fixing the day for considering the fresh allegations by the petitioner. ‘Jalasaya’ category land were being converted for homestead purposes without permission and permissions for conversions were also being granted without conducting any survey of the land, the petitioner alleged.

But when the petition came up for hearing on the day, state counsel DK Mohanty sought more time to file the affidavit. The PIL had first sought intervention against inaction by authorities in preservation of water bodies, especially tanks and ponds in the city in 2019 alleging virtually no steps were being taken for conservation and maintenance of the tanks and ponds in the city despite an order issued by the high court in 2012.

The high court had directed RDC (Central Division) in 2012 to constitute a committee with no more than seven members including the vice chairman of Cuttack Development Authority and commissioner of Cuttack Municipal Corporation and take steps for development and conservation of water bodies in the city. Later, the RDC imposed a ban on partial sale (portions) of ‘jalasaya land’ including ponds, tanks, and water bodies in Cuttack city.