A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court has ordered the removal of encroachments from the Konthuruthy river in one year after encroachers are rehabilitated by the State government and the Kochi Corporation.
The Bench comprising Chief Justice S. Manikumar and Justice Shaji P. Chali also directed the Revenue Secretary to convene a meeting of the District Collector, corporation officials, MLA, and the MP, to find ways to provide land to the corporation for rehabilitating encroachers.
The civic body has also been directed to ensure that waste is not dumped into the river and take steps to remove silt and waste on a war footing. The corporation should also ensure that no dirty water is drained out into the river by residents of the locality.
The court also restrained the corporation from permitting further constructions on the river bed and assigning permanent building numbers to constructions already carried out by encroachers.
It said that after removing encroachers, embankment should be done on both sides of the river by the appropriate authorities. All steps should be taken to remove the bund by constructing a bridge to ensure free flow of water. No assignment shall be given to anyone who have encroached on the river puramboke.
The court issued the directives on a public interest litigation filed by K.J. Tomy of Konthuruthy.
The Bench observed that in order to avoid future calamities due to flooding and other ecological imbalances in the corporation areas, necessary action should be taken to remove encroachments, failing which, the State would be doing gross injustice to residents.
According to the petitioner, owing to widespread encroachments, the width of the river has come down from 48 metres to three metres.