The Madras High Court Bench here on Wednesday took suo motu notice of a photo feature that appeared in The Hindu on June 25 highlighting the unhygienic conditions in and around the district due to dumping of garbage and plastic waste.
Taking up the newspaper publication itself as public interest litigation petition, a Division Bench comprising Justice R. Banumathi and Justice B. Rajendran ordered notice to the State Government, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board as well as the Madurai Municipal Corporation commissioner.
The judges directed a government counsel to file a detailed report with regard to the action taken by them in connection with the issue. They also included Samayanallur Municipality as a party to the case as one of the photographs had captured burning of garbage in an open ground there.
The photographs had also shown the Vaigai choked with plastic waste with no sign of water. They exhibited the pathetic condition of a canal that connects Melamadai and Sadhasiva Nagar overflowing with trash apart from the garbage dumped near Pandikovil. The prayer in the suo motu PIL, filed in the name of Registrar (Judicial) of the High Court Bench, was to direct the officials to take effective and emergent steps to remove the plastic waste that choked River Vaigai, remove the trash that overflows the canal, to restrict and control burning of garbage at Samayanallur and to restore the sanctity of Pandikovil.
