Residents of Kotla Mubarakpur had to approach the Delhi High Court to get the broken roads repaired for the last nine years. They fought a legal battle for two years and now the court has directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to repair three roads in this area within three months. After seeing the photos of these dilapidated roads, the officials of the corporation were reprimanded and asked whether they can live in this area or pass through here. If they cannot do this, then why are the residents of Delhi being forced to live in such conditions?
The bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela has asked the MCD to construct Kotla Mubarakpur Gurudwara Road, Shan Chand Marg and Bapu Park Road within three months and hand it over to the local residents. The court said that earlier construction work was started on these roads on its orders, but the work was stopped due to the use of substandard construction material. This time the bench has made it clear to the corporation that good material should be used for road construction. In fact, during the hearing of the case, local resident Manjit Singh Chugh presented photographs of these roads. There are potholes at many places and dirt is spread all around.
Raised voice over use of bad material
The special thing in this case was that on the orders of the High Court, roads started being built in the year 2023, but substandard material was being used for the construction of these roads. The local residents also raised their voice against this and got the material tested in the lab. In the High Court, the corporation told that the junior engineer of the corporation has been dismissed for this mistake. However, after that the road construction work had stopped there.
Road for VIPs was built in four days
The petition said that there is a BSF club adjacent to this area. The wedding of a bureaucrat’s son was to be held in this club in April 2022. The South Delhi Municipal Corporation built the road leading to this club for VIPs in four days at a cost of Rs 1 crore 20 lakh, while other roads in this area have been waiting to be built for years. The petition also said that the road which the corporation built for the wedding of the bureaucrat’s son is not even in its jurisdiction.