The Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal has pulled up the Public Works Department, the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) and the District Collector for not providing any updates whether they have initiated proceedings to remove unauthorised encroachments from the Kolathur lake.
The Bench had constituted a joint committee to ascertain the nature and extent of the lake, the nature of encroachments and the steps needed for restoring the lake and provide better storage capacity and whether there was any illegal dumping of garbage into the lake.
The joint committee provided short-term and long-term action plans. “(For) most of the short-term timeline provided in the report, the period mentioned is over. Further, they wanted hydrological study for run-off estimation, hydrographic survey and design of drainage channel with the assistance of an expert body,” the Bench said.
The Bench said it was not known whether the regulators had initiated any action on the basis of the recommendations made by the committee. The encroachments would have to be removed by the Public Works Department with the assistance of the Revenue Department by surveying the land, the Bench said.
“The District Collector, being the member of the committee, ought to have initiated necessary steps to implement the recommendations by giving direction to the respective authorities for surveying the land for identifying the encroachments and taking steps for removal of the same,” the Bench said.
The Bench said the PWD ought to have taken steps to remove encroachments and prevent the inflow of sewage. The PWD and the CMWSSB were expected to take steps for regulating the sewage in a proper manner and prevent discharge of untreated sewage into the water body, the Bench said.
“It is unfortunate that except the Greater Chennai Corporation, none of the official respondents have filed their independent reply statement regarding the steps taken from their side to resolve the issue,” the Bench said, and directed the authorities to carry out the recommendations while directing the District Collector to supervise the reports and file an independent report-cum-action taken report with specific timelines on carrying out the encroachment removal work.
