The Gujarat High Court’s division bench of justice AS Dave and justice AY Kogje has remarked that power discoms and other utility companies should consider the inconvenience caused to commoners and invite their objections before they decide to dig public roads.
The remarks came in response to an application filed by Torrent Power seeking review of the High Court’s strict order in a public interest litigation (PIL) regarding maintenance of city roads. After the court’s verdict, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) had issued a circular making it mandatory for utility agencies to resurface dug-up roads within three-days or else no fresh permission for digging will be granted.
Notably, the discom wants relaxation in the AMC’s stringent norms on road digging on the ground that it does not have any expertise to resurface roads and it is ready to pay AMC for carrying out the road resurfacing work. Commenting that the issue raised by the power company needs to be practically resolved, the court sought AMC’s response to the petition and posted the matter for further hearing on October 12.
The judges during the hearing of the petition expressed their unhappiness over AMC and remarked that the court had to issue directions in public interest because the civic body is not carrying out its duty. It further said that utility agencies are required to seek the consent of citizens living nearby before digging the road, but nobody bothers to do so. The court said that like Torrent approached it, other utility providers will also approach and therefore, the issue has be resolved practically.
STATE OF AFFAIRS
Earlier, Torrent had contended that it has over 17K new electricity connection applications pending. Court said, like Torrent, other utility providers can approach it. So, case needs to be resolved practically
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