The New Indian Express ·
Traffic woes: Orissa HC reprimands Cuttack collector for crossing ‘Laxman Rekha’
CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has expressed strong displeasure over Cuttack collector Dattatraya Bhausaheb Shinde’s attempt to replace a committee constituted by it to tackle the city’s worsening traffic congestion, calling the move “presumptuous” and a breach of the “Laxman Rekha” of propriety.
“What is more disconcerting is that the deponent, in the garb of seeking review/modification, is trying to act as an appellate authority over an order passed by this Court,” the two-judge bench of Justice KR Mohapatra and Justice V Narasingh observed, while rejecting the collector’s application seeking modification of the court’s August 13 order.
While hearing a PIL, the bench had constituted the committee, headed by the DCP, Cuttack, with an ADM representing the district administration, a deputy commissioner of Cuttack Municipal Corporation and an officer of equivalent rank from Cuttack Development Authority. Its mandate was to ease traffic congestion, remove obstructions on roads and drains and prevent their recurrence.
