CHENNAI : The Madras High Court on Friday questioned the approval given by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) to construct Chennai Silks building on the T Nagar site where the earlier building was gutted.A division bench of Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice A D Audikesavalu told the state housing secretary, who was present in the court, “During the recent fire that gutted the entire building, the fire and rescue department submitted that there was no sufficient place for the fire vehicles to reach the spot or even take a ladder near the building. While the fact being so, how did the authorities once again approve the building plan for construction in the same place?”
The bench made the observation on a plea moved by Kannan Balachandran, a resident of T Nagar, who alleged that 40% of construction of Chennai Silks building was completed within 20 days of approval of building plan. When the plea came up for hearing on Friday, the authorities submitted all relevant documents with regard to the plan approval were issued to the building.“When one wing (fire and rescue) of the government submitted that proper road width is not maintained around the building, how has the other wing (CMDA) approved the building plan?”, the bench said..
The court then directed the department to measure the width of the road and the flyover nearby the Chennai Silks in the presence of all parties concerned and submit a report. To this the CMDA submitted that it had been clearly mentioned in the plan approval that construction should not be carried out till approval was obtained from the Chennai Corporation.
Opposing the contention, the petitioner submitted that the multi-storeyed building committee, in its report, stated that T Nagar is a congested area, particularly in Ranganathan Street and Usman Road there are 142 deviated buildings. But no action has been taken till date.“Parking area to park 2500 cars has to be provided in all these 142 buildings. But they do not exist. Re-classification of this area is bad in law and already the area is full of rampant illegal constructions,” he added. Recording the submissions, the bench posted the plea to August 7.
HC objects transfer of idol theft cases
Chennai:THE Madras High Court on Friday took a strong objection to the order of the State government transferring all cases pertaining to idol theft, to the CBI. Is it necessary to order the transfer of temple idol theft cases to the CBI, when the court-appointed idol wing is already probing the cases, the HC asked. Justice R Mahadevan, who raised the question, also wondered whether it was proper for the state to pass a GO for the CBI probe when the court had asked for the documents pertaining to the policy decision taken by the State in this regard. The court adjourned the hearing to August 8.
DK hails govt decision on CBI probe into idol
Chennai:The AIADMK government, led by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, on Friday received kudos from unexpected quarters - Dravidar Kazhagam president K Veeramani - for shifting cases relating to idol theft to the CBI. The DK has been critical of State government’s move on many issues.