The Madras High Court has disposed of a public interest litigation petition alleging large scale encroachments on a waterbody near Pallavaram railway station after recording a submission made on behalf of Chengalpattu Collector that a survey would be conducted to identify the encroachers.
First Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice J. Sathya Narayana Prasad recorded the submission made by State Government Pleader A. Edwin Prabakar that the survey would be completed within four months and encroachments, if any, would be removed in accordance with law.
S.P. Gandhi, president of Pallavaram 13th ward residents welfare association, had filed the PIL petition insisting that the revenue authorities must identify and demolish all residential as well as commercial buildings that had been constructed by encroaching upon the waterbody as well as an adjacent temple land.
The petitioner told the court that the Tambaram Municipal Corporation had decided to spend ₹1.25 crore for creating a rainwater harvesting structure near the waterbody and that it would end up being a wasteful expenditure of public money if the structure was established without evicting the encroachers at the first instance.
