Court raps MCD for delay in shifting dairies
By IANSWednesday, September 15, 2010
NEW DELHI - The Delhi High Court Wednesday came down heavily on the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for delay in shifting dairies from unauthorised areas in the capital to a proposed alternative site on the outskirts.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Manmohan also warned the MCD that if they fail to comply with its order, stringent action would be taken against officials, including jail sentence.
However, the bench granted the MCD one year’s time to shift all the dairies to the Ghogha Dairy Colony in north Delhi.
Delhi has 2,361 illegal dairies. The MCD argued before the court that the colony where the dairies were to be shifted following a court order has all infrastructural facilities, but is yet to get water supply from the Delhi Jal Board.
The MCD has developed 2,080 plots at Ghogha Dairy Colony, 945 of which have been allotted and 245 dairy owners have taken possession.
The court’s order came on a petition filed by NGO Common Cause on the issue of stray cattle menace in the capital.
The petitioner said that the high court in 2007 had issued a slew of directions to the MCD to solve the issue of stray cattle on road.
It asked the MCD to employ sufficient number of vehicles to ferry the impounded cattle, to cancel the licences of the dairy owners in case their cattle and other animals strayed out of the premises and to ensure disconnection of electric supply to unauthorized dairies.
