Ravi S. Dhavan, J. - (1.) THE proceedings today are as a result of the order of 7 August 1990, when this court found that certain schemes to be executed by the local administration regarding civic amenities are being bogged down as a result of incoordination as the bureaucracy who have to execute the schemes cannot come together on one common table THE schemes are municipal but the execution is, it appears not being municipalised. A long span of a void in local self-government in this State lost the synchronization between citizens who forgot their civic rights (obligations included) and the officials who are slow to abdicate the style of raj as if local administration had better be without citizens' participation.
(2.) TWO aspects which were engaging the attention of the court are municipal water supply (drinking water) and its production, supply and distribution and encroachment by hawkers or veniors which has resulted in virtually choking Kamla Nehru Road running near the Lakshmi Talkies, Katra crossing where a vegetable market has sprung up, on the road itself. These cases have been pending now for three years and a solution to this civic problem has been alluding the' court, the local administration has been evading the solution Initially these public interest litigations were not realised by the local administration. There was always an attempt to scuttle it, not realising that the issues will not disappear. One aspect in both the problems is common Public roads have been encroached upon, and the local administration has not discouraged it. It has used public roads to encourage tahbazari on it, the situation has now got out of hand and the public roads are choked. It has used roads to put public utilities, by following the path of least effort in locating it anywhere else. Forgetting the right 'of a citizen to question bad and illegal planning, on style of who are you to question us attitude, a repeated pointer by the court to the provisions of Chapter VI-A of the Constitution of India and reference to certain Supreme Court decisions on environment and the concept of the road brought around the local administration to review what it has done, in a spirit of enquiry and reform and conform to the law. The opposite parties, the State or local administration had been indicated by the court that the Supreme Court had made the law very clear. The road is for passage only and nothing will come on it by encroachment whether shop keepers or public utility services. In any case if there is to be excellance of urban planning there is no place for obstructions on roads. No matter what the object or the activity may be, and there is no separate law for this for individuals and the State. It has taken a long time for the local administration' to come to terms with this concept, at least, before this court in the matters listed before it but the purpose of today's proceedings were different. It is now accepted and not registered by the opposite parties included that the road is not to be obstructed.
(3.) THE subject matter of two writ petitions were activities on the road as a common subject, but thereafter, for solution the similarity ceases in the two writ petitions. In re : Abhay Raj Singh v. Nagar Mahapalika, Allahabad and others, there- are two aspects, ii) The city water supply and (it) to generate it with tube wells on the roads. The local administration indiscriminately started putting mechanised tube wells on the side walks of public roads. The issue was challenged in the writ petition. Much that has happened in this writ petition is not being gone into at present, as the Head of the local administration (now under transfer) came around to the view, and rightly that the matter itself needs introspection and re-thinking as this apporoach to planning was not solving the water crisis either and creating more issues. The consequential, but not unrelated, issue also is how long will Allahabad continue to live in illusion that it can receive drinking water from 'water works which was made in 1890 for a population which was less than l/10th than what it is tpday and the size also was l/3rd of today's area. Khusroobagh, is the water works which was, made in 1890. It is accepted by the local administration both local and State that the limits of this water, works to supply the entire city have been stretched and overshot. Then, the question itself arises why was Allahabad left put without a second, if not, more water works in different parts of the city. The local administration Annual Reports from 31 years after the Khusroobagh Water Works was commissioned in 1890, reveal that every Chairman of the Municipal Board, like Shri Purshottam Das Tandon, in 1921 Annual Administration Reports Shri Jawaharlal Nehru in 1923-24 Annual Administration Reports and Shri Kamta Prasad Kacker in 1925-26 and again 1930-31, Annual Administration Reports were critical of the inadequate water supply and the manner of its generation, tube wells not excluded. Dr. Kailash Nath Katju, in 1936-37, Annual Administration Reports commented on the scheme for wastage of water and was concerned that, "It was not tackling the problem in a scientific manner.";