Nagpur, Jul 5 (PTI) The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court today directed the state government to deduct Rs 1 per day, until the next hearing, from the salaries of some senior bureaucrats for their failure to submit an action plan for removal of illegal religious structures in the city.

The court directed deduction from the salaries of principal secretary, Urban Development; the secretaries of Revenue, Forest and Home Departments, chairman of Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) and the Nagpur municipal commissioner, said Advocate Firdous Mirza.

Mirza appeared for Manmohan Khorgade and Gajanan Zade who have filed a public interest litigation seeking removal of all illegal religious structures from roads and other public lands.

The bench of Justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Z A Haq was today hearing intervention applications of trustees of some religious structures against proposed demolition, Mirza told PTI.

The Nagpur Municipal Corporation informed the court that it had issued demolition notices to illegal religious shrines and other structures, Mirza said.

He, however, pointed out that the court had directed the authorities to submit an action plan for removal of illegal structures from roads, but no action plan has been submitted yet, Mirza said.

The authorities instead started removing illegal structures standing in the residential areas, which caused resentment among people, he said.

The court then adjourned the matter for two weeks, while ordering deduction of Rs 1 per day from the salaries of senior bureaucrats till further hearing, he said.

Government lawyers could not be contacted for comments.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)