The Madras High Court Bench here on Friday asked Madurai Collector and Corporation Commissioner to respond to a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking adequate supply of drinking water to all the 100 wards in the city.
A Division Bench comprising Justices M. Jaichandren and R. Mahadevan passed the order on the PIL petition filed by K.K. Ramesh, managing trustee of Tamil Nadu Centre for Public Interest Litigation, a Madurai-based private organisation.
The petitioner said lack of sufficient rainfall and consequent depletion of groundwater level had forced a majority of the city residents to purchase water drawn from suburban localities and supplied through tankers.
The Corporation supplied drinking water to its residents once in four days. But in some localities, it was supplied once in six to eight days and that too in small quantities. Further, the civic body had not provided drinking water connection in 28 wards annexed to it in 2011, he claimed.
He accused hotels, lodges, industries and other commercial establishments of using motors to draw drinking water from common underground pipelines laid by the Corporation and said: “The respondents do not take action against the wealthy and the powerful.”
The petitioner pointed out that the Supreme Court, in a judgement delivered in 2000, had said, “There is no dispute that under the Constitutional scheme in our country, right to water is part of the right to life and thus a fundamental right.”
Stating that he had submitted a representation to the Collector as well as the Corporation Commissioner seeking supply of water to all the wards in the city, the petitioner sought a direction to the officials to take appropriate action.
