CHENNAI: Holding that barricading river boundaries to curtail encroachments and prevent dumping of garbage and solid wastes in lakes and river-beds needed urgent attention, Madras High Court has directed the TN government to ensure that there was no further encroachment or re-encroachment of water bodies and dumping.
The first bench of Chief Justice SK Kaul and Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana gave the direction, while disposing of a batch of miscellaneous petitions arising out of a main PIL from the Manuneethi Consumer and Environmental Protection Center in Anna Nagar, on Wednesday.
The issue of barricading would be examined in the main petition itself, the Judges said.
On the issue of appointing a committee of experts for water management and environmental concerns, to conduct a survey as to the geography of the rivers passing through the city and make suggestions for the effective utilization of the same towards draining of the flood water, the bench directed the State government to examine this issue and incorporate this aspect also in the counter affidavit to be filed in the main petition.
The bench made it clear that the pendency of the main PIL will not come in the way, but would rather encourage the government to quickly take steps in this behalf, so that the bench could possibly have some expert opinion by the next hearing. As regards desilting the lakes and rivers and deepening them by removing all the slush and filth, which had accumulated recently, the bench opined that this aspect should also be urgently examined.