The Uttarakhand High Court single bench of justice Pankaj Purohit issued contempt notices to the district magistrates of Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar and directed them to submit their reply within four weeks. The court issued the notices while hearing on a contempt petition regarding past orders of the court not being followed.
Haldwani resident BC Pokhariya had filed the contempt petition stating that rivers in Uttarakhand flood during the monsoon. The estuaries are blocked and this results in floods and soil erosion which in turn leads to waterlogging in residential areas. The petitioner stated that rivers in spate damage thousands of hectares of forest land and government works. He further stated that rivers tend to divert towards residential areas in absence of channelisation. This results in flood like situation in Udham Singh Nagar, Haridwar, Haldwani, Ramnagar, Roorkee and Dehradun. A number of bridges were swept away due to floods last year, the petitioner stated, while adding that governmental negligence is the main reason for inundation in residential areas. The contempt petition contends that the government has not followed the February 2023 orders of the HC which had directed the State to clear debris and channelise rivers.
