Shillong, Feb 17: The High Court of Meghalaya has expressed unhappiness over the handling of traffic snarl by the MDA government.
The court also referred to the delay in taking action against illegal mining, protecting the environment and other issues while citing the inaction of the state to address the traffic issue.
During the hearing of the PIL on Thursday moved by Philip Khrawbok Shati, the division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice W Diengdoh said that though a fancy report has been filed by the state through the Secretary, Home (Police) department, incorporating aerial pictures of the major junctions and areas of traffic bottleneck in the city of Shillong, there is little by way of commitment, planning or measures spelt out to tackle the traffic problem in the state capital.
While the report refers to certain development projects being in the offing, no timeline has been fixed and the report does not indicate any previous plan or implementation thereof or even a present plan for implementation.
“Unfortunately, as in other matters pertaining to the preservation of the environment, tackling illegal mining operations in the state and the like, there does not appear to be any serious or concerted effort or roadmap of the state government in such key areas that require serious governance and immediate attention”, the court said.
It reminded that though there was a verdict on an earlier PIL moved by senior advocate SP Mahanta regarding traffic , the government has not followed up the matter.
According to the court, if it is necessary, the state government has to engage with the autonomous hill councils to improve the lot of the general people and to ensure that the possible problems are anticipated and a plan of action put in place for, say, five or ten years or even beyond.
The matter will come up for hearing again on March 17.
