The Supreme Court on Monday slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 on Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain for not filing an affidavit revealing the names of officials who the AAP government claims are not cooperating with it to fight vector-borne diseases like dengue and chikungunya.
Expressing clear displeasure at the Delhi government lawyer’s plea seeking more time to file the affidavit, a bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud observed: "People are dying, you don't need 24-hours to file an affidavit."
The Delhi government had made these allegations in court during the last hearing, prompting the court to ask for an affidavit from the minister on errant officials who the inister claimed were not cooperating in the drive to contain chikungunya and dengue.
Reminding the Delhi government about its tall claims, the bench observed: "When you make tall claims you must back them up".
The court imposed the cost in the course of the hearing of suo motu matter it had taken up in 2015 when parents of a child committed suicide after he died as was not treated at a hospital.
The total number of dengue cases in Delhi has gone up to to 1,692 with 921 of them being reported this month, according to a municipal report.
Out of the total cases, August alone accounted for 652. The number of houses where mosquito-breeding have been found till September 24 are – 51,598 (in NDMC areas), 71,227 (SDMC) and 18,681 (EDMC). The number of prosecutions launched in these areas are 4277, 6955 and 1937 respectively.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led government has maintained that the outbreak of the diseases was because of lax handling on part of Delhi’s civic bodies.
