Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa held a high-level meeting on Friday to discuss the way forward on the regularisation of shops on Marina Beach. She reviewed the status of the proposal of the Chennai Corporation and took an update on the matter, which is currently subjudice.
The Corporation had proposed a Rs 4.84 crore project in July 2012 to beautify the beach and regularise the shops that cropped up illegally over the years. The civic body had proposed construction of six rows of shops between Anna Samadhi and Pattinapakkam, to replace the hundreds of temporary structures and hawkers’ pushcarts that are spread out across the entire stretch. The new shops were proposed to be pre-fabricated units with tensile roofing.
Local councillors had been tasked with working out a solution over the enumeration of the shops. However, the matter has been in court for some months, after a PIL was filed asking the Madras High Court to prevent the shops from functioning.
Sources in the government told Express that the meeting chaired by the CM on Friday had in part discussed and reviewed the affidavit that the Chennai Corporation is set to file before the Madras High Court.