The Madras High Court on Friday directed the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to submit a flow chart by September 20, listing out steps taken by it so far for the proposed Chennai-Salem expressway.
The court also wanted to know the current stage of environmental impact assessment (EIA) as well as other studies carried out for the project.
A Division Bench of Justices T.S. Sivagnanam and V. Bhavani Subbaroyan passed the interim order on a batch of cases filed against the acquisition proceedings. During the course of hearing, petitioners’ counsel apprehended that NHAI might issue a declaration of acquisition any time under Section 3D of the National Highways Act of 1956.
However, Additional Solicitor General G. Rajagopalan, said, “nothing will happen as apprehended by the petitioners” and the judges recorded his submission before adjourning the case by a week. In so far as change in alignment was concerned, the ASG told the court that it was in a fluid stage at present.
Earlier, the judges took serious note of 109 trees having been felled illegally along the proposed alignment. They were not convinced with the explanation of the State government that a contractor had felled the trees adjoining a forest area, by misusing permission granted to him to remove just six wind fallen trees from another piece of land situated far away.
Dharmapuri district administration had suspended from service the Pappireddipatti Revenue Inspector, Village Administrative Officer of Manjavadi and two Village Assistants for having failed to prevent illegal felling of the trees. Further, a criminal case under Section 379 (theft) of the Indian Penal Code had been booked against the contractor T. Andi and four others.
Since as many as three of those accused were absconding, the police arrested the contractor and one more accused Manivannan alone on September 2 but they too were granted bail by a local Judicial Magistrate on September 7. After recording these submissions, the judges directed the jurisdictional Deputy Superintendent of Police to disclose the antecedents of the accused.
They also issued a direction to the District Forest Officer to file a report by the next date of hearing, explaining the modus operandi adopted by the accused and as to why adequate care was not taken to prevent such incidents from lands adjoining a forest area. It was further ordered that 10 saplings should be planted and nurtured for every tree that had been felled.