‘Are officials held accountable for failing to prevent encroachments?’

MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court questioned the state government whether the revenue and panchayat officials were being held accountable for the increasing number of encroachments and official inaction in such matters.

After hearing nearly a dozen petitions, alleging encroachment of properties, including waterbodies, a division bench comprising Justices N Kirubakaran and B Pugalendhi raised the query to the Additional Advocate General (AAG) Sricharan Rangarajan. They asked him if the higher authorities have issued any circular to the revenue and panchayat officials pointing out their duties in preventing and removing encroachments and whether any monitoring mechanism was being adopted to ensure that the ground-level officials perform their tasks properly.

Citing the trend in cases concerning "encroachments", especially those pertaining to water bodies and government properties, the judges specifically questioned the government whether it holds officials accountable in such cases. Pointing out the recommendations made by A K Rajan's Commission for 'Transparent and Corruption-free Government in 2008', they asked the AAG to furnish the circulars issued by the government in that regard and the steps taken to implement the same. They directed the AAG to get instructions from the government and give a response on the issue.