CHENNAI:The Madras High Court has disposed of a petition to remove encroachments in a public land in Kolathur following submission from the Chennai Corporation that the issue will be immediately looked into and appropriate action will be taken.
The First Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T S Sivagnanam listed the Public Interest Litigation filed by Senthil Nagar Residents Welfare Association on June 26, for compliance by the Corporation.
According to petitioner, one S P Pallaniappan promoted his larger extent of land into five layouts including Senthil Nagar in Kolathur. The land earmarked for public purpose in the lay out was duly transferred in favour of Kolathur panchayat and later to Chennai Corporation.
Subsequently, the Corporation decided to construct a shopping complex on the land. While so, one S Jayanthi, owner of an adjacent plot, along with some unauthorised persons had encroached the land by fencing the land with their plot and stored the building materials there. However, after the association sent a representation to the Chennai Corporation to take action against the encroachment, the building materials stored were removed.
In January 2013, a board was erected on the land stating that a construction company was going to build an apartment on the land. On enquiry, the association came to know that the encroacher had illegally obtained a building approval. In January 2014, the encroacher had made all efforts to carry out the construction. Immediately, the petitioner made several representations to various authorities to stop the construction. However, no positive action has been taken to safeguard the Corporation land.
When the petition came up for hearing, counsel for the Chennai Corporation said appropiate action would be taken after notice to all concerned and the result informed to the petitioner.