BMC chief asked to appoint officer to fulfil assurances

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has asked Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Ajoy Mehta to appoint an officer to file an undertaking in response to a petition filed over BMC vehicles not complying with environmental norms and being in use beyond their life. The court has given the civic corporation till Monday to comply, failing which the BMC will incur costs.

The division bench of Justices Abhay Oka and Anuja Prabhudessai was hearing a clutch of petitions filed by the Bombay Environment Action Group alleging violations of rules by the civic authorities. The issue being heard on Thursday dealt with the failure of the corporation to replace its old vehicles that were not compliant with the environmental norms, thus causing pollution.

The counsel for the petitioners argued that despite giving an assurance to the court last year to replace 39 vehicles that had become older than eight years, BMC had failed to do anything about it. The petitioner also told the court that the assurances of replacing the vehicles till December 31 had not been fulfilled. The bench said the BMC commissioner would have to take on the responsibility of ensuring that the communications to the court were implemented.