The state government on Tuesday failed to submit a counter affidavit in Patna High Court in a case related to streamlining of traffic to get rid of congestion on the state capital's roads.

The bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Anil Upadhyay directed the district administration and Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) to file a counter affidavit within four weeks before the court.

The order was passed on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Public Interest Litigation Forum, which had highlighted poor traffic management in Patna.

The petitioner, through the PIL, had requested the court to direct the state government to ensure smooth traffic and to remove encroachments from roads, flanks and footpaths that are often blamed for the traffic snarls in the city.

The petitioner's lawyer, Shashi Bhushan Kumar, told the court that snaking traffic jams were inconveniencing commuters, with school children and patients on their way to hospital for treatment being the worst sufferers.

The high court had on May 18 this year directed the state government to file a counter affidavit detailing what measures it had taken to solve the traffic congestion in Patna.

The petitioner's lawyer had apprised the bench that the government was sitting tight on the issue of removing encroachments from the roadsides despite several orders issued in the past.

Students of at least 16 prominent schools on Bypass Road face traffic snarls for hours almost every day.

"It is a nightmarish ride for students and teachers, especially during summer," said a teacher of Baldwin Academy. "The government must do something to address the problem."

Despite a 6am-5pm ban on the movement of heavy vehicles on Jaganpura Road, where at least nine schools are located, violation is rampant. Several schools have deployed traffic volunteers on their own.

In February 2015, Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh, who had been caught during the movement of the chief minister's cavalcade near Chitkohra roundabout, had summoned senior officers of the administration and the police and ordered them to ensure smooth traffic.

The government had then assured the court that all necessary steps to ease out traffic in the area will be taken, but the situation remains the same.

In 2014, a high court division bench of Justice Navin Sinha and Justice Vikash Jain had summoned the Patna SP (traffic) and a transport department official over road congestion and even warn-ed them of contempt proceedings if they failed to streamline traffic.