CHENNAI: The state government on Thursday informed the Madras High Court that the ground truthing exercise on the Pallikaranai marshland has been completed and the report has been sent to the Chengalpattu collector for authentication.
Advocate General PS Raman made the submission before the first bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan when a PIL filed by advocate J Breznev seeking to quash the planning permission issued by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) for constructing a residential complex allegedly on the marshland by Brigade Enterprises Limited came up for hearing. The AG also informed that once the authentication is done by the collector, the report will be submitted in the Supreme Court which is seized of the matters relating to Ramsar sites.
Senior counsel P Wilson, representing the TN Wetland Authority, told the court if the one km radius of zone of influence, as imagined by the petitioner, is accepted, then the entire stretch of OMR and Sholingunallur will go and there wouldn’t be any development in the city.
The petitioner, AIADMK legal wing secretary of Chennai Suburban district, alleged that the Brigade Enterprises was given environmental clearance for constructing a high-rise residential building complex with four blocks in Perumbakkam village, on the marshland, on January 20 by the State Level Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA). Within three days, the CMDA issued permission for the construction. The AG pointed out that the CMDA issued the approval only after the SEIAA, constituted by the union government, granted the clearance.