The Madurai Corporation on Wednesday informed the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court that cleaning of the Panaiyur and Anuppanadi canals would be completed by November 15.
A division bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Nisha Banu observed that the cleaning of the channels should be a continuous process and there should be surveillance to ensure that garbage and waste materials were not dumped into them.
The division bench had earlier initiated a suo motu public interest litigation petition taking cognisance of a news report published in The Hindu on the dumping of garbage in Panaiyur and Anuppanadi channels. It directed the Corporation to file a status report on the action taken to clean them.
In an earlier status report, the Corporation said the cleaning of the channels was in progress but it was facing hurdles as the waterbodies passed through densely-populated residential areas riddled with encroachments.
The court had directed that stringent action be taken against those polluting the channels by imposing fine under the ‘polluter pays’ principle.
The court had further directed that steps be taken to remove the encroachments around the channels in accordance with the law.
