India News | Senior HP Govt Officials Asked to Appear Before HC for Not Complying with Order
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Senior officials of the state government were on Monday asked to appear personally before the Himachal Pradesh High Court for failing to comply with its order of inspecting a leprosy home.
Shimla, Mar 7 (PTI) Senior officials of the state government were on Monday asked to appear personally before the Himachal Pradesh High Court for failing to comply with its order of inspecting a leprosy home.
The officials include secretary (social justice and empowerment), director (health) and Shimla deputy commissioner and district welfare officer.
The court directed them to appear before it on the next date of hearing on March 21 to explain why the order regarding inspection of the leprosy home at Leprosy Colony in Shimla's Phagli and its necessary repair work was not complied with.
In its order on January 7, the court had directed Shimla DC Aditya Negi to inspect the leprosy home and ensure necessary repairing work within four weeks.
During the course of hearing, the petitioner's counsel stated that Negi neither inspected the site personally, nor got the repair done.
Subsequently, a division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua passed the orders on Monday on a petition filed by one Neeraj Shashwat who alleged that leprosy patients were allotted a building at Fagli by the government almost a decade ago and since then it has not been maintained by the state.
The petitioner further alleged that the home lacks proper water supply while the inmates are forced to defecate in the open as the toilets have been rendered useless due to a leakage in the sewerage system.
He also claimed that many of the windows and doors were broken and the electrical fittings in the building were not maintained.
Shashwat said the matter was taken up with various authorities but none of them have shown any interest to improve the condition of the leprosy home.
The petitioner had requested to issue directions to the state to provide and maintain basic amenities with immediate effect as the winter season was about to set in.
However, the additional advocate general contended that although belatedly, on March 4, the Shimla district welfare officer had sent an estimate of Rs 40 lakh for carrying out repairing work to the director, empowerment of SCs, OBCs, minorities and specially-abled, saying the work shall be carried out after the sanction of budget.
The court observed that the officers of the state are insensitive towards the people suffering with leprosy staying in the dilapidated home.
It further observed that this only shows the lack of concern on the part of the executive to those staying in the leprosy home, most of whom are in the gae group of 60 to 85 years.
(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)