The Madras High Court on Tuesday stayed the operation of an order passed by the National Green Tribunal on October 31 imposing costs of ₹2 crore on the Public Works Department (PWD) for having reportedly failed to submit details regarding desilting of the Adyar and Cooum rivers as well as the Buckingham Canal apart from removing encroachments on their banks.
A Division Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and Krishnan Ramasamy granted the interim stay after Additional Advocate General P.H. Arvindh Pandian, assisted by Additional Government Pleader E. Manohar, contended that the NGT ought not to have imposed exemplary costs without providing an opportunity to the PWD to submit the requisite details. Explaining the history of the case, P. Jeyaram, Chief Engineer, PWD (Water Resources Department), Chennai Region, said, activist Jawaharlal Shanmugam had approached the NGT in September 2015 to get the Buckingham Canal cleared of all debris, water hyacinth besides strengthening embankments and plugging sewer inlets.
In the meantime, the case got tagged with other applications related to cleaning of Adyar and Cooum rivers. The cases was heard at length and the PWD filed periodical reports on steps taken by it from time to time. The last effective hearing of the case was on December 21, 2017. Thereafter, it got listed for hearing only on September 24 this year.
Since there was no presiding officer in the Southern Zone bench of the NGT here for long, the matter was heard through video-conferencing from the principal bench in New Delhi. After the hearing, The tribunal directed the PWD to file a comprehensive report on the subject matter under consideration and the future plans if any to safeguard the two rivers and the canal.
Additional penalty
Accordingly a report was filed on October 31. However, not satisfied, the NGT not only imposed costs of ₹2 crore on the PWD but also ordered imposition of additional penalty of ₹50,000 per day until a proper report was filed. “Such exorbitant costs would put considerable pressure on the exchequer,” the Chief Engineer said.