The Bombay High Court on Thursday asked the State government to spell out within four weeks its plans for utilising the Rs 100-crore funds offered by Bloomberg Philanthropies, a New York-based foundation, for adopting the best of road safety practices in Mumbai. It also wanted to know whether a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed to this effect.
The Bombay High Court on Thursday asked the State government to spell out within four weeks its plans for utilising the Rs 100-crore funds offered by Bloomberg Philanthropies, a New York-based foundation, for adopting the best of road safety practices in Mumbai. It also wanted to know whether a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed to this effect.
Advocate Armin Wandrewalla, appearing for the Bombay Bar Association, submitted news paper reports stating that an MoU would be signed between the state and the charitable organisation. She argued: "The anxiety of citizens is two fold, first see the agreement is signed and second to supervise the use of funds. State cannot treat this as an adversarial litigation and will have to come forth with their stand."
She further argued: "Public money is being wasted most of the times; state owes a responsibility to explain the funding." Additional government pleader J S Saluja though opposed the argument saying that "This should not be allowed as it is not part of the main petition which dealt with painting of zebra crossings and empowering traffic constables."
A division bench, constituting Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice G S Kulkarni, agreed with Wandrewalla and in a lighter vein said, "The Bloomberg people must have got stuck in the city's traffic, after which they selected the city for funding." However, it was clarified to the court that Mumbai was selected because of the increase in road accidents.
As per newspaper reports, cited by Wandrewalla, the foundation is likely to donate up to Rs 90-100 crore for Mumbai to adopt standard practices such as traffic rules, driving discipline and safety, and reducing congestion. It will also provide senior-level, full-time staff to work within city limits on the road safety initiatives for up to five years, comprehensive technical assistance from the world's leading road safety organisations, training for police officers and other relevant city staff, and support to create hard-hitting mass media campaigns.
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