Centre says municipal corporations under Delhi government, startles HC

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday startled the Delhi high court by its stand that the three municipal corporations fall under the Delhi government's control.

A surprised bench of Justices B D Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva asked for a clarification from the Centre after it claimed that the state government controls the corporations and is ultimately responsible for ensuring earthquake preparedness in the capital.

"This is a very startling statement by Centre in its affidavit. It is also in the minutes of the meeting," the bench observed, referring to a meeting of all stakeholders called by the urban development ministry to chart a plan in case of an earthquake.

"We find that a clarification is required as to whether the municipal corporations fall under administrative control of the Delhi government or not. The affidavit indicates that the corporations are under the state government," it noted in its order.

However, the standing counsel for the Centre, B S Shukla, remained unperturbed, arguing that the court should focus on issuing directions to improve safety rather than on a mistake in the affidavit. But HC was not impressed and directed him to seek instructions from the government and clarify.

Taking "judicial notice" of a series of earthquakes that occurred close to India this year, the HC had on the last date of hearing pointed out that a majority of buildings in the capital were structurally unsafe and asked the Centre to submit an action plan for ensuring buildings survive the quake.

Observing that Delhi falls in seismic zone IV, a high risk area, the bench had given the Centre three weeks time to submit an action plan .

While giving time to the Ministry of Urban Development ( MoUD) to file its plan of action, the court had expressed the hope that no earthquake occurs in Delhi during this time as such an event would result in the death of lakhs of people.

But the Centre in its reply claimed it can at best frame policies and it is up to the state government and local bodies under its control to implement these.