CHENNAI: The southern bench of the National Green Tribunal has directed the Pallavaram municipality and Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board to file multiple reports regarding the pollution of Putheri Lake, where miscreants had dumped garbage overnight, which engulfed the lake and polluted it fully.
Taking suo motu cognisance of The New Indian Express article titled Months old garbage still floating in Putheri Lake, Judicial Member Justice K Ramakrishnan and Expert Member Saibal Dasgupta, in their order directed the municipality to submit two reports - one on action taken regarding the allegations in the article and another on the progress of the lake restoration by March 17.
The Tribunal also directed the TNPCB to submit a report on water quality of the lake and implementation of Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 in the Pallavaram municipality.
Recently, the Pallavaram municipality had mentioned before the Tribunal that all the garbage in Putheri was removed. Following this, The New Indian Express wrote a report on how months-old garbage was still floating in the lake polluting the water, contrary to the claims of the municipality.
The Tribunal questioned the municipality on reports of garbage still floating in the lake, when the local body had claimed that all the garbage was removed.
The municipality responded saying that it would look into the matter and submit a detailed report regarding the same.
Meanwhile, the Public Works Department, in its report said that there were plans to restore Putheri Lake under the Comprehensive Flood Mitigation Project with an amount of Rs 2,000 crore which also involves creating biodiversity parks and trees on the banks of the river to protect it from future encroachments.
The PWD said that a Detailed Project Report has been sent to the government and after getting approval from the World Bank, the project would start.
The New Indian Express had written a series of reports regarding the pollution in Putheri Lake and how encroachers tried to stop the restoration process temporarily.