Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Jul 21: The state high court (HC), on Thursday July 20, sharply criticized both state and central governments for the apathy they have shown towards denotification of about 77.64 km of national highway passing through the city like MG Road and Brigade Road.

The single judge bench of the HC presided by Justice Vineet Kothari which is hearing a batch of petitions filed in this regard by owners of bars and restaurants, observed that both these governments are trying to pass the buck to each other. It said that this problem would not have arisen had the officials done their duty properly.

"I can vouch from my 18 months experience that negligence of officials has been giving rise to a large number of suits and litigations. I have realized that unless the officials face the heat, the work is kept pending. They do not have respect for the orders passed by the court," Justice Kothari observed.

"Are you playing shuttle cock, tossing the issue at each other? This trick will not work here. The matter could have been sorted out earlier had you woken up to the problem in time. Why are you sleeping over the issue?" the bench questioned.  At one stage, the bench said that it would be constrained to summon the secretary in the union government for personal appearance and impose fine if the official fails to present himself in HC.

The bench adjourned the hearing by one week, to July   27. The judge said that the work of denotification only requires clerical work and wondered why so much time is being taken for it. "The state is sitting pretty after sending letter to central government on June 15 to denotify these roads. The central government does not seem to have verified this file. Otherwise this work would have been done immediately," it noted.  The bench also questioned Bangalore Development Authority as to why did not inform the centre when it built bypass roads at national highways 4 and 7.

To the argument of the state that it did not get response from the central government, advocate for the central government said that the union government had already clarified that national highway located within the city limits does not fall under it. He sought a week's time to respond to state's request.

The petitioners have been questioning the order of the excise department which has refused to renew their permits as M G Road and Brigade Road form part of national highway.