Tamil Nadu

Madras High Court orders government to desilt waterbodies across state

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MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court directed all district collectors to deepen and desilt waterbodies in their districts following a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition seeking direction for the same. 

A division bench, comprising justices N Kirubakaran and S S Sundar, passed the order on the PIL filed by one K K Ramesh of Madurai in 2015.

In his petition, Ramesh stated that groundwater level had been decreasing drastically as many waterbodies and kanmoi have disappeared owing to encroachments. He sought direction to identify and protect such waterbodies and to dredge the existing waterbodies to enable storage of rainwater.

Hearing the petition, the judges gave an interim direction to all district collectors to deepen and desilt the existing waterbodies in their districts.

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