Delhi HC directs DJB to put mobile toilets in jhuggi cluster in New Multan Nagar

The HC also directed the petitioner to implead the Delhi government as a respondent and also issued notice to government counsel who was present in court.

The HC also directed the petitioner to implead the Delhi government as a respondent in the matter and also issued notice to government counsel who was present in court.

The HC further directed the DJB to “ensure that there is drinking water supply forthwith” for the residents of the jhuggi basti. The matter is next listed on September 6.

The HC noted that the PIL stated that a large number of people were being deprived of their “basic human rights” as sewer facilities had not been in existence in the jhuggi basti. The court noted that as per the PIL the children and women were “forced to cross the railway line” to reach the forest to answer the call of nature.

The plea filed through advocate Vikrant Dabas states that there are many senior citizens and other people who can’t walk out of their home and have to somehow take assistance of others everyday for “defecating in the open”. The PIL further states that going to the forest and railway lines is unsafe as many people including “small children have lost their life while going over the railway lines for open defecation”.

The plea further submits that the residents of the Jhuggi Basti visited and wrote to the respondent authorities numerous times but the “Board (DJB) always ignored the facts and deliberately misguided the Petitioner to approach different departments and to reach out ministers for the same purpose and clearly ignored the fact that responsibility lies in the hands of respondents”.

“Due to open defecation, there is contamination in sources of drinking water because of which there is an alarming risk of spreading of diseases such as cholera, diarrhea and dysentery. The World Health Organization estimates that inadequate sanitation causes 432,000 diarrheal deaths annually. Frequent diarrhea has increased the risk of malnutrition among children of the petitioner’s area and being vulnerable to such diseases the respondent’s never paid attention,” the plea submits.