AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Tuesday directed the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to file another affidavit on which roads it laid or resurfaced in the last three years, when the civic body claimed that it had repaired some 523.42km of roads in the last three years.
During the hearing of a contempt of court application over poor road conditions, traffic problems and the stray cattle menace, when the court began raising questions, AMC conceded that it could not focus much on these issues because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Its counsel submitted that for most part of the year, most of the civic body’s staff were engaged in dealing with the pandemic situation and a large part of its budget was also spent on this.
The bench of Justice A J Desai and Justice S J Dave asked the civic body to furnish details about the roads when the petitioner’s advocate, Amit Panchal, argued that though the AMC claimed to have repaired more than 500km of city roads in the last three years, it had not supplied any details showing which stretches were repaired so that the claims co. The lawyer also said that the civic body’s claim that none of the roads that were built recently and are under warranty were damaged in the last monsoon is false.
The HC also ordered the AMC to inform the court about what action it has taken to resolve traffic snarls after the city police tendered a voluminous 811-page affidavit that included a report from the Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi.
The judges appeared dissatisfied with the promises that the AMC made during the last hearing, about putting an end to haphazard parking under the metro route. The judges asked about parking along the metro route, and the authorities assured the court that the problem would be taken care of. On Tuesday, Justice Desai reminded the authorities about the parking issue and said that despite their assurances, there has been no change. He also said that driving on these roads is difficult because a very small area is left for driving because of parked vehicles.
The court also pointed out encroachments under flyovers and asked which authorities are responsible for managing stretches where flyovers have been built.
As the petitioner complained about persistent stray cattle on public streets and half-hearted efforts to bring about a permanent solution to the problem, the high court directed the state government to file an affidavit showing all communications after 2017, when the AMC began requesting the government to enact a legislation for urban areas to restrain the movement of cattle.
The court posted a further hearing on these issues on December 15.
