CHENNAI:A sum of Rs 2,500 crore has been sought to prevent and eliminate damage due to floods, a division bench of the Madras High Court was informed on Thursday.
Making their presence in the court, Dr Sathya Gopal, Commissioner and Atul Mishra, secretary, State Revenue department, told this to the bench of Justices N KIrubakaran and Krishnan Ramasamy, when the PILs challenging the approval granted to Case Grande Builders, came up for further hearing on Thursday.
The builder is allegedly constructing 13-storey residential flats consisting of more than 100 tenements in the Nungambakkam lake area.
Earlier, the bench wanted to know the steps taken by the government officials with regard to “Flood Prone Zones” in the city. The duo submitted that pursuant to the 2015 floods, a detailed report was prepared for preventing repeat of the same. A fund of Rs 2,500 crore was also sought for this purpose, they added.
Because of the preventive measures taken, the damage was minimised during the Vardha cyclone. In the 2015 floods, as many as 859 places were water-logged. Pursuant to the preventive steps taken, it has now come down to just 50, the officials added.
After recording this, the bench appointed advocate T Mohan as amicus-curiae to go into the details with regard to the approval given to the builder. It also directed all officials, who were assisting in the present matter, to be present at the next hearing on August 17.
Amicus-curiae appointed
The division bench appointed advocate T Mohan as amicus-curiae to go into the details with regard to the approval given to the builder. It also directed all officials, who were assisting in the present matter, to be present at hearing on August 17.