Chandigarh: High court takes serious note of flooding of its record room in Sec 17
Chandigarh recorded 158 mm rain on August 11, which caused widespread waterlogging, traffic snarls, damage to public and private property across the tricity
The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has taken a serious view of the flooding of its record room in Sector 17 during Sunday’s downpour.
The city recorded 158 mm rain on August 11, which caused widespread waterlogging, traffic snarls, damage to public and private property across the tricity.
The downpour caused sewage backflow, leading to extensive flooding in the basement of the erstwhile district court building, which is now being used as the HC record room.
“Some of the records have been scanned (digitalised) but the remaining are yet to be scanned. The extent of the damage is yet to be ascertained. If unscanned records have been destroyed, it is an extremely serious matter where the responsibility would rest with the Chandigarh administration,” the bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Anil Kshetarpal observed while asking UT to spell out a remedial action plan by August 23 when the matter is to be taken up again.
The court noted that despite repeated reminders – in October last year, and April and May this year, the UT chief architect and chief engineer failed to take remedial measures.
The order was passed during hearing of a 2013 public interest litigation (PIL), filed by Vinod Dhaterwal, an office-bearer of the high court employees’ association, demanding infrastructure development of the HC complex in wake of the increasing traffic congestion and space crunch. The court also asked the UT to prepare a traffic circulation plan for the HC complex so as to ease congestion in and around the campus during peak hours, and apprise the court about the same.
The court has also sought a fresh report on implementation of the holistic development plan of HC.