May 23, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 06, 1428

HYDERABAD, May 22: Mr. Justice Faisal Arab of the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit bench, here on Tuesday ordered site inspection of the Right Bank Outfall Drain-II (RBOD) by the Additional Registrar of the court, Altaf Hussain.

According to petitioners, work on the RBOD is continuing in violation of the stay granted by the Sindh High Court.

The court had directed the authorities to stop work after the villagers of Kotri filed a contempt of court application against the authorities for contuning excavation work despite an earlier stay order by the court.

The case has now been fixed for June 1 when the additional registrar would submit his report.

The site inspection order was passed after counsel for respondents, Jagdesh R. Mullani, said that none of the property had been demolished and it could be verified by the court through appointment of an officer for inspection.

He had earlier argued before the court that a project of national importance had been stopped due to pendency of constitutional petition.

The petitioner's counsel Jhematmal Jethanand also raised no objection and gave his consent for the visit.

The RBOD-II Executive Engineer Nasrullah Soomro was also present.

Mushtaq Ali Shoro and three other villagers had challenged the construction of RBOD-II with specific objection to keep its alignment on the left side of Kalri Baghar (KB) feeder. According to their objections, the petitioners were land owners/cultivators in green belt. The belt is stretching over 15 kilometers whose length is around one kilo meter.

Approximately 17 villages with an estimated population of 100,000 besides thousands of acres of fertile land and mango orchards and other trees, two Eidgahs, seven schools and 45-water courses existed on the green belt.

They said, the DDO acquired lands for purpose of RBOD-II as per alignment of PC-I (project cost) while construction was carried out except on the right side of KB feeder.

In 2002-03, without approval and in collusion with influential landlords who owned lands adjoining to original alignment, the respondents threatened to excavate drain from green belt on left side of KB Feeder.

They prayed the court to declare change in alignment and construction of RBOD as without lawful authority and issue permanent injunction against respondents from constructing drain whereas mandatory injunction be issued directing the DG of EPA to enforce provision of Pakistan Environmental Protection Act (PEPA) 1997 to ensure that no untreated industrial effluent and municipal waste is brought to green belt or water sources.

Meanwhile, Mr.Justice Mohammad Moosa K.Leghari directed the Assistant Advocate-General (AAG) Sindh, Mr.Qasim Mirjat to propose relief for under trial prisoners (UTPs) in the wake of reports submitted by different sessions judges after visiting jails lying within their jurisdiction.

The court had put the Advocate- General (AG) Sindh on notice for Tuesday.

The AAG submitted before the court that there were mainly two issues of prisoners that had been mentioned in judges' reports. According to reports, the UTPs were not getting proper medical treatment and their cases were not proceeded or they were not produced before the court.

He undertook to submit a report on May 29 with proposals to provide relief to UTPs.