MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Madurai Corporation to remove all shops located on the pavement abutting the walls of the Sundaram Park near Vandiyur lake in Madurai. It also permitted to keep the park open from 6 am to 8 pm, by removing the earlier time restrictions.
A bench of justices CV Karthikeyan and R Sakthivel gave the directions on a PIL filed by N Manikandan seeking direction to close all the food stalls functioning in the park and to restrain the visitors from bringing plastic materials into the park, alleging that it was leading to littering and pollution of the lake.
In the previous hearing, the court had ordered closure of all commercial establishments on the banks of the lake and restrained the civic body from cutting down any trees or putting up any amusement equipments like giant wheels in the park without the court's leave. It had also restricted the timings by stating that the park should be open from 6 am to 10 am and from 3 pm to 8 pm.
When the case was heard on Tuesday, it was alleged that though the shops inside the park were removed, food stalls which are situated on the pavement outside the park were still open and visitors continue to litter the park by throwing the food packets bought from these stalls. Hearing this, the bench directed the corporation commissioner to remove these stalls so that pedestrians can use the pavement freely. The case was adjourned to August 13.