HC slams UDF, LDF for hartal in Wayanad

Court makes it clear that such conduct on the part of people’s representatives will not be viewed lightly as it will tantamount to a blatant violation of the court directives

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Friday came down heavily on the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) for holding a flash hartal in Wayanad on November 19.

The hartal was called in protest against the allegedly delay on the part of the Centre in sanctioning additional assistance to the State for undertaking relief measures for those affected by the landslides in the district.

The Bench comprising Justice A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice K.V. Jayakumar observed that while the political outfits cannot “feign ignorance of the directives” issued by the court prohibiting the calling of flash hartals, without giving adequate notice to the public, it was not entirely clear what the outfits sought to gain from the whole exercise other than mounting “more misery upon an already beleaguered section of our people”.

The court observed that the undue harm such insensitive actions caused to the image of the State as a tourism destination also cannot be understated. It made it clear that such conduct on the part of people’s representatives would not be viewed lightly as it would tantamount to a blatant violation of the directives of the court.

The court expressed hope that the ruling dispensation would ensure that the court’s directives prohibiting the calling of flash hartals would be scrupulously adhered to in future.

The Bench made the observations while hearing a suo motu case registered in the wake of the Wayanad landslides.

Suvin R. Menon, counsel for the Centre, submitted that a high-level committee had approved ₹153.467 crore from the NDRF, subject to adjustment of 50% balance available in the SDRF account for providing relief.

It had also approved the bills raised by the Indian Air Force for airdropping essential supplies and rescue operations. The assistance for the clearance of debris at Meppadi had also been approved by the committee.

The court directed the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) to furnish a list of projects for which the corporate environment responsibility (CER) fund was utilised and also file a statement as to whether an audit of the utilisation of the CER fund had been conducted post implementation of the projects.

The Bench also directed the State government to file periodically timely updates on the progress of the carrying capacity study conducted in the hill stations.

Published - November 22, 2024 07:02 pm IST