High Court notice to state, KPT over cyclone

AHMEDABAD, July 7: Gujarat High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the State government and other authorities after admitting a petition, whi...

AHMEDABAD, July 7: Gujarat High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the State government and other authorities after admitting a petition, which seeks judicial inquiry into the alleged failure of concerned authorities during the June 9 cyclone that hit coastal Saurashtra and Kutch, claiming more than thousand persons.

After hearing the petition filed by a journalist Ujwal K Chaudhary and Lok Adhikar Sangh, a division bench of Acting Chief Justice K G balakrishnan and Justice J M Panchal issued notices to the authorities, making them returnable on July 24.

The petitioners submitted that criminal negligence on the part of the authorities resulted in the death of about 10,000 people and loss to public and private property worth crores of rupees when the cyclone struck the coastal areas of Gujarat on June 8 and 9.

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Praying for a judicial inquiry, counsel for the petitioners submitted that a controversy has erupted following charges and counter-charges levelled by the Kandla Port Trust (KPT) and the State government against each other over who was to blame for the tragedy.

The petitioners said with both the KPT and State government passing the blame on one another and the State government making a statement that it did not have the names of all the victims who died in the cyclone, including in the KPT area, only a judicial inquiry could bring out the truth in the matter.

Among those issued notices are Union Ministry of Surface Transport, Gujarat government, State Chief Minister, Kandla Port Trust chairman, Kutch district collector, Kutch district superintendent of police, assistant commissioner of salt, Gandhidham, and commissioner of labour, Ahmedabad.

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