By IANS,
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Tuesday awarded two-week imprisonment to three Delhi Jal Board officials, including its CEO, and slapped on them a fine for not repairing a damaged drain in the national capital despite the court’s order two years ago.
Justice S.N. Dhingra awarded the jail term to the DJB CEO and two engineers and a fine of Rs. 20,000 each to be deducted from their salaries.
The imprisonment, however, shall remain suspended for three months.
The court said the officials will have to undergo the imprisonment if within three months they fail to control the flow of sewage from a drain at District Centre, Nehru Place, into the drain of S-Block, Greater Kailash-I.
Jal Board CEO Arun Mathur, Chief Engineer (Drainage) R. K. Jain and Executive Engineer P. Pant were found guilty of not abiding by the undertaking given to the court. The hearing was posted for March 5 next year.
The DJB even failed to place on record before the court any evidence to substantiate its claim that the officials had attempted to repair the line, the court said.
In a contempt petition, the residents of S-Block complained that the Delhi High Court in March 2006 directed the department to repair the line within three months as the residents were facing difficulty.
Despite the DJB’s assurances to the court to repair the sewage line, the officials had failed to comply with the court’s earlier direction, the petition said.