The Gauhati High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) on the haphazard establishment of mobile phone towers in Guwahati. The court has asked the GMC to furnish a reply within December 18. The court was responding to a PIL on ‘‘mobile phone tower radiation’’ filed by Paragmoni Kakati. The petitioner urged that there was an urgent need to curb the potentially dangerous practice of the GMC permitting the mobile phone service providers to set up mobile phone towers in thickly populated residential areas and near hospitals and schools. ‘‘In the absence of any rules/guidelines, there has been a haphazard and uncontrolled issuance of permits by the GMC, and correspondingly a chaotic setting up of towers in the city has led to ill–effects on health,’’ said the petitioner. The petitioner also informed the court that the GMC ‘‘has no mechanism or provision for inspecting the localities concerned before issuing permits’’ to the mobile phone service providers. What is interesting is that the petitioner also told the court that there was no ‘‘record’’ available with the GMC about the number of permissions granted so far to each mobile phone service provider, locations of towers etc. The basic question that the petitioner has raised is this: Without such records, it is ununderstandable as to how the GMC can monitor and keep track of the activities of the service providers in the matter of installation of towers! The petitioner also harped on the recommendation of the inter–ministerial committee formed by the Union Ministry of Communication and Information Technology in 2011 that said that mobile towers should not be installed near high–density residential areas, schools, playgrounds and hospitals. The petition was heard by Chief Justice AK Goel and Justice AK Goswami. The counsel for the petitioner, BD Konwar, said that the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution ‘‘necessarily includes the right to a healthy environment free of health hazards, and it is the duty of all the respondents to ensure that their activities do not impair the health of citizens’’.