Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 6
Just about a fortnight after the Chandigarh Administration's move to scrap "manual dumping carts" or rehris involved in door-to-door garbage collection came under the judicial scanner, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today fixed January 25 for reply by the UT and other respondents.
Appearing before Justice Lisa Gill's Bench, UT counsel Pankaj Jain submitted that the authorities concerned would make efforts to accommodate the garbage collectors by adjusting those with driving licences as drivers and helpers.
Counsel APS Shergill and Harmanjit Singh Sethi, on the other hand, contended that the UT had no plans for their rehabilitation. A maximum of 300 garbage collectors could be adjusted, while their number was around 3,000.
Seeking directions for junking the system that "illegally" prevented the garbage collectors in the city from earning their daily livelihood, the petitioners had earlier claimed that hundreds of garbage collectors in the city would be rendered jobless and left in the lurch.
The petition filed by Shamsher Singh and 28 other petitioners through counsel Shergill and Sethi urged the court to issue directions, calling upon the Chandigarh Administration and other respondents to show cause how and why the policy mandating the replacement of rehris with motorised door-to-door garbage collection vehicles was set to be enforced without hearing/involving the stakeholders in the deliberation process or without even conducting a public hearing necessary under Article 14.
Claiming that the move was in complete defiance of their basic fundamental rights, the petitioners also prayed for a stay and directions for restraining the respondents on the ground that door-to-door garbage collection was their only means of employment and source of income in the economically challenging times of Covid.
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/35haZhc
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