Gauhati High Court (GHC) has issued notice to Centre, Nagaland government and others in a plea filed by the petitioner– Society (Global Trust Club), Chizami on the issue of non-implementation of schemes under Swachh Bharat Mission in the State of Nagaland.
According to LiveLaw report, the bench of Chief Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Achintya Malla Bujor Barua heard the plea (public interest litigation), alleging non-implementation of schemes such as Swachh Bharat Mission in Nagaland in spite of funds being given by the Centre for the said purposes.
The petitioner alleged that as a result of this, development work, particularly relating to supply of drinking water to rural areas and other such works of public purposes were not being properly implemented in the State of Nagaland.
After hearing the parties, the Court, while issuing notice of motion returnable in four weeks, said: “We are, prima facie, of the opinion that the petition raises an issue of public importance. Consequently, we issue notices in this case.”
The respondents– Union of India, State government represented by secretary Public Health Engineering (PHE) department, Chief Engineer PHE, executive engineer PHE and SDO PHE, PHEK Sub-Division have been asked to file their counter affidavit within a period of three weeks.
It may be noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ (Clean India Mission) on 2nd October 2014 to accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage and to put the focus on sanitation. The ‘Abhiyan’ was launched on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s 145th birth anniversary.