CHENNAI: Even as several cases of water pollution are pending before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) against the Pallavaram Municipality, the local body faces yet another controversy. This time, municipality workers have been caught drilling to set up a bore well in the encroached portion of the Pallavaram Periya Eri’s lake bund.
The municipality is allegedly continuing to drill the bund though the Public Works Department (PWD) issued them a notice to stop, saying their act is illegal. The PWD, which owns the waterbody, issued the notice after local activists raised an alarm.
The municipality has also raised a wall to build an overhead tank. A senior PWD official told Express they issued the stop-notice immediately after they found out about the bore well. “There is a procedure to get permission and there are legitimate means to draw water.
This illegal act seems to be politically supported, so what can the PWD do beyond issuing a stop-notice? We are not the enforcing agency,” said the official, on condition of anonymity. The official said the municipality, which is presently the caretaker of the Pallavaram Periya Eri, has still not handed the waterbody back to the PWD.
Express had reported in May 2019 that around 10 hectares of the total 46.16 hectares of the Pallavaram lake’s expanse were encroached. According to 2007 municipality records, there were 768 encroachments in Pallavaram lake. Activist David Manohar said, “I have raised the issue with the authorities and the work must be stopped.” When contacted, municipality officials said they did not proceed further and the work has been halted.