MADURAI
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday directed the Pudukottai district authorities to look into the representation made for removal of encroachments from a waterbody in all seriousness.
A division bench of Justices M. Venugopal and Abdul Quddhose directed the authorities to take appropriate action after looking into the representation made by the petitioner within 12 weeks and identify the name of the encroachers and the extent to which the encroachment was made by the private parties in Kodumpalur Chathiram.
The court observed that it was the duty of the district authorities to safeguard natural resources and restore them to their original position.
N. Selvaraj of Pudukkottai filed the public interest litigation petition as no action was taken by the authorities even after the encroachments were brought to their notice. The petitioner said he had also received a reply from the district authorities stating that the encroachments were not removed.
