The district administration, the Collector in particular, appears to be in trouble in the issue related to removal of encroachments in the River Noyyal basin.
The Collector, who was the third respondent in a case related to the removal of encroachments, gave an assurance to the First Bench of the Madras High Court on September 20, 2016 that within a year - September 20, 2017 - he would remove all encroachments.
Assurance
Taking note of his assurance, the Bench headed by the then Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul disposed of the petition directing the Collector to file periodical reports by also marking copies to the petitioner, Coimbatore Consumer Cause.
The consumer body had filed a writ petition seeking a direction to the Revenue Department, Public Works Department, the Coimbatore Collector and also Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner to remove encroachments along the river and also the tanks that form part of the Noyyal basin.
In the past year, since the court’s direction, the consumer body said it had not got any copy of the compliance report the district administration was supposed to have submitted to the court.
The consumer body also said that the administration had also failed to furnish it the list of water bodies to be removed of encroachments - details it had sought under the Right to Information Act. The district administration had simply forwarded the RTI query to the Public Works Department and asked it to mark a copy. The PWD was yet to respond, though.
The consumer body’s secretary, K. Kathirmathiyon, said the very fact that the administration did not have a list of water bodies to be removed of encroachments and that too towards the end of the one-year period, forced one to suspect its intent to remove encroachments.
The consumer body would move a contempt petition before the court to ensure that its directions were complied with, he added.
Collector T.N. Hariharan did not respond to calls or messages.
