Expressing serious concern on the poor condition of cleanliness and sanitation in the city,

LUCKNOW: Why can’t Lucknow be beautified? This is a question not from a heritage or social activist but the high court to the municipal commissioner.

Expressing serious concern on the poor condition of cleanliness and sanitation in the city, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court on Friday directed municipal commissioner Indramani Tripathi to chalk out a strategy to deal with the menace.

The high court rap specified the problem of stray animals, mosquitoes and dairies running illegally in municipal areas. The court has also asked the commissioner to come up with a plan to remove garbage from roads. It has asked the state authorities to beautify monuments “so that one feels proud of being a Lucknowite”.

Clearly asking Tripathi to respond to why Lucknow cannot be beautified, a bench of Justice MN Bhandari and Justice Saurabh Lavania suggested to him to visit Indore to witness the civic beautification in that city.

The court has fixed May 2 as the date for Lucknow Municipal Corporation to present the proposed action plan to deal with problems of the city. The court has also issued a notice to the LDA vice chairman and housing commissioner of Awas Vikas Parishad to detail before it the proposed action to improve civic condition of the city.The bench passed the order on a writ petition moved by the municipal corporation challenging an order of the Lucknow Consumer Forum. In that order, the Forum had directed that one year’s salary of the commissioner be handed over to a complainant who had raised the issue of cleanliness and sanitation of the city. The Forum had also directed the commissioner to ensure proper cleanliness in the city.

The high court stayed the order of realization of salary but took suo motu cognizance of the problems of the city.

The bench asked Tripathi to act whole-heartedly and even assured him of help if he faced any problems—be it financial or otherwise—by passing suitable orders.

During the hearing, the bench pointed out several of the city’s problems such as mosquitoes. On stray cows and bulls wandering on roads and causing accidents, the bench said if the government is so sensitive towards cows, why does it not take effective steps for their upkeep.

The bench concluded by saying that when it comes to collection of taxes, the corporation is very strict but when it is about performing duties, it takes problems of people lightly.

