Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Thursday issued summons to two IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officers from the Home Department and the Urban Development and Urban Housing Department (UDD) in connection with contempt proceedings related to road maintenance, traffic issues, and the stray cattle problem on public streets.

The bench, comprising Justice A Y Kogje and Justice S J Dave, expressed dissatisfaction with the actions taken by the authorities based on the court’s earlier directives. The court has now ordered the additional chief secretary of the Home Department, M K Das, and the UDD principal secretary, Ashwani Kumar, to appear on August 29 and provide a response.

In its order, the court noted that it has been monitoring the efforts of the respective departments over the past six hearings and remains unsatisfied with the departments’ actions.

The PIL, filed in 2017 by Mustak Kadri through advocate Amit Panchal, highlighted poor road conditions in the city. In May 2018, the High Court issued a series of directives to the authorities to ensure proper road maintenance, ease traffic congestion by removing encroachments, resolve parking issues, and tackle the stray cattle menace.

The petitioner filed a contempt of court application in 2019, alleging non-compliance with the court’s orders. Consequently, the High Court ordered the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to submit progress reports every two months on the implementation of its orders. The proceedings have been ongoing since then. DeshGujarat