India News | HC Calls for Detailed Affidavit on Water Bodies
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary to file within a week, a detailed report with regard to water bodies situated throughout the state, those under encroachment, the number of cases of eviction and action taken in this regard.
Chennai, Dec 1 (PTI) The Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary to file within a week, a detailed report with regard to water bodies situated throughout the state, those under encroachment, the number of cases of eviction and action taken in this regard.
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If the report is not filed within a week, the court would be left with no option except to summon the Chief Secretary, the first bench of Acting Chief Justice M N Bhandari and Justice P D Audikesavalu warned.
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The bench was passing further interim orders on a batch of PILs seeking to remove the encroachments on water bodies and channels in various parts of the state.
Meanwhile, the government filed one more report giving the status prevailing in the state.
It claimed that the status of encroachments in the water bodies is dynamically changing and eternal vigilance is exercised by the field officers concerned to prevent unscrupulous elements from encroaching the water bodies further.
However, the exact status of each and every water body can be ascertained by the District Collectors working in consonance with the departmental officer concerned, such as the Executive Engineer of the Water Resources Department, the report said.
Considering the complexities of the exercise, the report prayed the court to grant six months time to assess the status of encroachments. The State government is making all out efforts to protect all the water bodies by evicting all encroachments and prevention of pollution in the water bodies. All encroachments will be evicted in a phased manner following due process of law, it added.
Irked over the plea to grant six months time, the bench gave the direction today.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)