Rajendra Nagar flood: Delhi High Court criticises Delhi government for 'freebie culture'; seeks report

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday criticised the Delhi government for its 'freebie culture' and sought responsibility for the death of three civil services aspirants due to water-logging in a coaching centre in Delhi's Rajendra Nagar..A Bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela remarked that because of the 'freebie culture', the government was not collecting enough money to upgrade infrastructure in the national capital.."Civic authorities are bankrupt. If you don't have money to pay salaries, how will you upgrade infrastructure? You want freebie culture. You are not collecting money so you are not spending any money," the Court said..The Court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking a "high-level" probe into the three deaths..The Court also noted that the quality of the probe so far was unsatisfactory and that no responsibility had been fixed on any Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) official till now."Who is the investigating officer? Some sort of a strange investigation going on. Unauthorized construction happens in collusion with the Police," the Bench remarked..Subsequently the Court impleaded Delhi Police as a respondent in the PIL and sought an action taken report about the probe so far. It stressed the need to fix responsibility and stated that if the same was not done, a Central agency would have to be engaged. The Court listed the matter for further hearing on Friday, August 2. It also ordered the investigating officer, the concerned Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) and MCD Commissioner to be personally present before it..A organisation named Kutumb filed the PIL in the High Court for a probe into the incident. It has made the Delhi government, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) parties to the case and said that the incident was a result of corruption and failure of the civic authorities in the national capital..According to NDTV, the incident occurred at a building in Rajendra Nagar which housed a branch of Rau's IAS Study Circle, a prominent coaching institute for civil service aspirants.The institute's library in the basement was flooded following heavy rains.The three aspirants who died in the incident were identified as Tania Soni (25), Shreya Yadav (25) and Navin Delvin (28)..Advocates Rudra Vikram Singh, Yash Giri and Anuj Shukla appeared for the petitioners..Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.