PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad High Court has asked National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), police department, local administration, Noida authority, and fire department to apprise the court of proposed suggestions so that an action plan can be prepared for any future disaster.
The bench of Justice MC Tripathi and Justice Kunal Ravi Singh was hearing a PIL in the death of 27-year-old Yuvraj Mehta, who drowned after his car plunged into a water-filled trench at an undeveloped site in Noida’s Sector 150 on January 16.
In its order passed on March 17, the court said: “We have also perused the counter affidavit filed by the NOIDA (New Okhla Industrial Development Authority) and we find that even though notices were issued to various erring builders on 06.02.2026 to rectify the defects within three days but counter affidavit is completely silent with regard to what remedial steps were taken and whether NOIDA had actually verified the remedial steps taken. Furthermore, the affidavit is also silent whether in NOIDA, there is any nodal officer nominated to deal with emergency situations and to coordinate between various agencies in such emergencies.”
“The affidavit is also silent as to who was the officer of NOIDA who had reached the spot when the entire incident was being broadcast live. We expect that an affidavit indicating the above should be filed by the next date fixed,” added the bench.
The court also asked the counsel appearing for NDRF and SDRF to submit details about the minimum required time for emergency readiness if they received any information about a disaster.
The court fixed April 1 next for further hearing in the matter.