The Coimbatore Corporation has begun the process of identifying encroachments on River Noyyal Basin, in order to have these removed. This follows a Madras High Court order on a petition filed by Coimbatore Consumer Cause.
Sources in the civic body said the Town Planning wing had begun the process of identification and will submit a compliance report on the encroachments removal, which is to be monitored by the High Court.
The Court had said in its order on September 20, 2016 that it would like to monitor the progress of the entire process, with a periodic status report from the civic body, demonstrating compliance, along with maps of the area and photographs.
The consumer body's honorary secretary K. Kathirmathiyon had moved the court seeking a direction to the Secretaries of the Revenue Department and Public Works Department, the Coimbatore Collector and the Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner to remove encroachments in the lakes in Noyyal Basin.
He had sought a direction that the water bodies should not be misused, even if the authorities concerned had already accorded approval for projects.
In the hearing on September 20, the district Collector had filed an affidavit admitting there were encroachments in the river basin and sought a year's time for issuing notices and removal of the encroachments.
Before posting the case for next hearing on December 16, 2016 the Court asked for a compliance report from the Collector and also said that the stay granted in June [ban on misuse of water bodies] would be permanent.
Contempt petition
Mr. Kathirmathiyon also said that the consumer body had also filed a contempt petition since a few departments had failed to comply with an earlier order in this regard, and that petition was pending.
He sought the cooperation of the public in reporting encroachments to the authorities concerned so that they were compelled to act.
