Chennai, June 10 (PTI) The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the government to take steps to protect the harvested paddy, which are kept in open places for procurement by the government or to dry the produce when there is chance of a heavy downpour.

The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, which gave the direction, hoped that appropriate measures would be taken and put in place immediately, particularly since there is a possibility of further rain in the next few days.

The bench was treating a news item in an English daily dated June 10 as a Public Interest Litigation plea. The news report alleged that due to the laxity on the part of the Madurai district administration the harvested paddy kept in open spaces for procurement by the State and for drying purposes was soaked in the sudden rain and started sprouting.

The matter will come up again on June 17.PTI COR VGN

(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)