Coasts no place to dump building debris: HC to GCC
CHENNAI: The Chief Justice of the Madras High Court has directed the Chennai Corporation to continuously monitor and observe that construction waste and debris are not dumped in the coastal areas of the city.
The first division bench of the Madras High Court (MHC) comprising Chief Justice S V Gangapurwala and Justice P D Audikesavalu said action should be taken if any construction and demolition waste is found in the coastal areas of Chennai.
A petitioner M Suresh moved the MHC seeking to direct the State and the Chennai Corporation to initiate measures for the removal of construction waste, debris, untreated effluents, and industrial waste dumped along the coastal areas from Bharathiyar Nagar Thiruvottiyur to tollgate North Chennai.
The district environmental engineer of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) had filed a status report stating that a coastal stretch of 4.2 km from Bharathiyar Nagar Beach to Tollgate was inspected and it was found that construction and demolition waste was found dumped along the eastern side of the road and no industrial waste was dumped.
The counsel for the Chennai Corporation submitted that said stretch comes within the purview of five divisions, as far as the stretch within two divisions is concerned, the construction and demolition waste has been removed. The construction and demolition waste in respect of the remaining three divisions is not removed. Further, another submission by the corporation stated
Action should be taken if any construction and demolition waste is found in coastal areas of Chennai, the first division bench of the Madras High Court told Chennai corporation
that the process is on to remove the construction and demolition waste/debris and the same would be removed in the remaining divisions within three weeks. The status report submitted by the corporation also stated that 528 metric tonnes of waste have been removed from the coastal area of Bharathiyar Nagar Beach to Tollgate.
After all the submissions the bench directed the Chennai corporation to continuously monitor the coastal area, to ensure that no further construction waste and debris be dumped in the coastal areas and dispose of the petition.