Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has informed the Bombay high court that it will be handing over the plot identified for installation of the Doppler radar by the end of March to the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and, as for the issue of paying the lease amount, its is for the state government to decide whether it would waive off the charge or ask the central government to pay for the same. The court had come down heavily on the BMC for not handing over the plot to the IMD under one pretext or the other and had directed the civic body to give a fix date during the last hearing.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dr Manjula Chellur and Justice G.S. Kulkarni was hearing the public interest litigation filed by advocate Atal Dubey regarding the problems faced by Mumbaikars due to the vagaries of the monsoon and the need for installation of advanced warning systems within the city. One of his pleas for the same sought the intervention of the court.
Mr Dubey had also informed the court that the BMC and IMD had jointly identified a plot but the civic corporation was delaying handing over of the plot under one pretext or the other.
In light of the fact that the BMC had been delaying handing over the plot as IMD had refused to pay the lease amount being demanded by it for the past month, on Monday the court asked the civic body to hand over the land by the end of the month.
The court also directed the IMD to install the Doppler radar system after getting land in suburbs and ensure that it starts functioning as soon as possible.
The IMD had identified the site after a joint inspection with the BMC last year but after that the BMC had been delaying handing over the plot.
The court had also asked municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta to oversee the expeditious handing over of the plot after which the BMC had raised the issue of lease amount.
Following the directions by the court, the BMC said that they had already written letters to the Maharashtra government urging that it should waive off the charges needed to be paid for the plot of land procured for installing the Doppler radar system in suburban Mumbai. The state government is yet to take a decision on the issue.
