Chandigarh, Oct. 14 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court has imposed a fine of Rs.20 lakh on different authorities in Haryana for delay in providing basic amenities in a Gurugram locality. "The state shall ensure that the costs are recovered from the erring officials as per law, since the financial burden for inaction and laxity on the part of the officials cannot be passed onto the tax payers of the state," the bench of justice Vinod S Bhardwaj and justice Ravinder Malik ordered. It also asked the chief secretary to file an affidavit giving details of the orders passed by the HC during the last five years, in which a fine was imposed with a liberty to recover the same from the erring officials along with the status of the fine recovered in such cases. The order came on a clutch of petitions filed by Gurugram colonisers, in which it was highlighted that the Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) has not initiated the process for the acquisition of land to provide a major sectoral road, even though the full amount of extra development charges has been taken from developers and others despite the lapse of 18 years. "It is deeply distressing to note that while colossal amounts towards external development charges (EDC) have been paid to and retained by the state since the year 2008, the ultimate consumers and bonafide home buyers have been deprived of basic infrastructure facilities for more than a decade," the court observed....