CHENNAI: A division bench of the Madras High Court has directed the Tahsildars of Perambur and Ayanavaram to survey Paper Mills Road at Perambur and find out encroachments made on either side of the road margin and submit a report to the court.
A bench of Justices T S Sivagnanam and V Bhavani Subbaroyan gave the directive while passing further interim orders on a contempt application arising out of a PIL petition from L D William Moses of Sembium-Thiru-vi-ka Nagar, recently.
According to advocate T S Rajmohan, Paper Mills Road originally was 100 feet wide. About 10 schools, various religious places and commercial organisations are situated on the road. Over the years, the road was reduced to 40 feet due to rampant encroachments, severely affecting flow of vehicles and pedestrians, he said.
When the matter came up before the first bench led by Chief Justice in 2012, the judges had directed the authorities concerned to remove the encroachments.
Alleging that till date no action has been taken, Moses filed the present contempt application. When it came up before a bench in March last, the judges directed the Deputy Commissioner of Zone-6 to appear before it. Accordingly, the official appeared last week and claimed that the encroachments had been removed and that the owners of the alleged encroachments possessed ‘pattas’.
But Rajmohan contended that the encroachments had not been removed. To ascertain the factual position, the bench directed the Tahsildars to survey the road.