CHENNAI: Calling waterbody encroachers ‘traitors’, the Madras High Court has recently said such encroachers should not be given alternative sites for accommodation as it would amount to perpetuating the illegality of the government.
A division bench of Justices S Vaidyanathan and K Rajasekhar made the remarks recently when a petition filed by IH Sekar of Nature Trust on encroachment of Pallikaranai marshland came up for hearing.
The member secretary of Tamil Nadu Wetland Authority submitted that Rs 5 crore has been sanctioned for rehabilitation and alternative tenements for 1,087 families who have encroached upon the marshland.
The bench felt it is really a sad state of affairs that in Tamil Nadu, instead of buying land, any person can encroach upon land and the government is willing to give an alternative site. If this is allowed, then the taxpayers’ money would be wasted. If an alternative site is given to the encroacher, it would amount to perpetrating illegality by the government.
“If the encroachments on waterbody are not removed, this court will be constrained to pass appropriate orders for ushering in the military force to remove the encroachments,” the bench warned. The bench directed the member secretary of TN Wetland Authority to sit with the counsel for the petitioner Advocate VBR Menon to find out the modalities for restoring the marshland.