CHENNAI: Expressign dissatisfaction over the slow pace of progress of the Buckingham canal clean-up, the southern bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT) has summoned the managing director of Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) to appear before it on March 16.
Interestingly, on January 8, Metro Water MD Vikram Kapur, who was then Chennai Corporation commissioner, along with PWD Principal Secretary N.S. Palaniappan, appeared before the NGT bench and gave an undertaking on various measures taken by the government to infuse life back into the city waterways, especially Buckingham Canal, that acts as a natural drainage system.
However, even after two months the situation had not improved. In fact, got worsened as is evident from the latest photographic evidence submitted by the petitioner Jawaharlal Shanmugam, which was endorsed by Justice P. Jyothimani and expert member R. Nagendran of NGT bench.
Meanwhile, KV Rajan, Special Secretary, PWD, on Monday submitted a status report stating that PED special type of barges are being put up inside the canal to remove the silt, floating particles, hyacinth and other vegetation. The cleaning was taken-up from Chepauk to Greenways Railway station (from Cooum river to Adayar river) for a length of 7.20 km and from Kotturpuram to Muttukkadu (Adyar river to Muthukkadu) for a lengh of 23.50 km.
The report also said CMWSSB was taking-up construction of sewage treatment plants after which all the outfalls of raw sewage into canal would be closed.
However, the NGT has taken serious objection to the manner in which the departments were operating.