The Madras High Court had issued notice to the government on a public interest litigation seeking to remove encroachments within the boundaries of all the tanks as defined in the Tamil Nadu Protection of Tanks and Eviction of Encroachments Act 2007.
After hearing the PIL plea filed by Change India, represented by its Director A. Narayanan, a Division Bench comprising of Justices T.S. Sivagnanam and M.Sundar ordered that notice be issued to Secretary, Public Works Department, and the Engineer-in-Chief, Water Resources Department and posted the matter for further hearing to September 15.
In his petition, Mr. Narayanan said government enacted Tamil Nadu Protection of Tanks and Eviction of Encroachments Act 2007 following the orders of the Madras High Court and as per the provisions of Act, the government had to undertake a survey, based on the revenue records, of tanks in every district. The government should appoint survey officers who should prepare charts and hand them over to PWD for maintenance. Based on the survey, encroachment should be removed from tanks.
Unfinished task
Mr. Narayanan said that despite the passage of 10 years, the objectives set out in the law had not been fulfilled. The petitioner, while referring to the Government Policy note 2017-18, submitted that there were 39,202 tanks in the State. Of them, 14,908 were under Water Resources Department.
Stating that an RTI enquiry revealed that out of 21 sub-divisions the survey was completed only in six. In 11 sub-divisions encroachments had not been removed.
The petitioner, therefore, appealed to the court for a direction to remove encroachments.
