The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Greater Chennai Corporation and Public Works Department officials to submit by July 24 a list of the number of waterbodies in the city, the number of waterbodies that had been freed of encroachments, those that had been desilted in the recent years and those that were yet to be restored to their original position.
A Division Bench of Justices N. Kirubakaran and Krishnan Ramasamy called for the details while hearing a public interest litigation petition filed by V. Kanagasundaram of T. Nagar here. The petitioner had accused the officials of having turned a blind eye to waterbodies within the city limits and thereby let them choke due to rampant encroachments and dumping of garbage.
After passing orders in the case, the judges broached the subject with Chennai Corporation Commissioner D. Karthikeyan when he appeared before the court in connection with another case. Replying to a query from Mr. Justice Kirubakaran, the Commissioner told the Bench that there were more than 200 waterbodies within the corporation limits.
He added that the corporation had identified 26,837 encroachments along the banks of Cooum and Adyar river banks and canals. So far, 12,718 families had been resettled in Slum Clearance board tenements and of them 6,473 were resettled within a short period between December 2017 and July this year, the Commissioner said.
He also informed the court that 30 canals were beign desilted and floating materials were being removed on rotation basis using newly purchased amphibian machines and three robotic excavators from foreign countries. About 16,250 tonnes of hyacinth and silt had been removed from these canals to ensure free flow of rain water, he claimed.