Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Kanimozhi tweeted pictures of inundation in Athipattu Pudu Nagar in Ennore on Tuesday, following heavy rain in the city. In a related tweet, she also sarcastically thanked the Vallur thermal power plant, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum and Kamarajar port for the Ennore creek encroachments that had caused flooding in nearby areas.
Speaking to The Hindu , Ms. Kanimozhi said, “I’ve seen the place [Athipattu Pudu Nagar] before and also raised the issue of encroachments in Ennore creek previously in Parliament. But the response I received from Union Minister for Shipping Nitin Gadkari has not been very satisfactory.”
Pointing out that she had been raising the issue time and again, the DMK leader expressed concern that nobody seemed to be taking the matter seriously. “Even T.M. Krishna has sung a song urging people to save Ennore, but authorities have been releasing maps as though the creek doesn’t even exist,” she said.
Minister’s letter
On September 19, Union Minister for Shipping, in a written response to the MP, said that the Ennore creek land had not been encroached upon by the port but it was in their possession “after it was acquired from Tidco or purchased from the salt department of Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion”. Mr. Gadkari also contended that Kamarajar Port Ltd. (KPL) was carrying out port development work following environmental norms and after obtaining necessary clearance from the appropriate authority.
In response to a related news item published in The Hindu — ‘Riverbed work challenges CRZ norms’— on October 28, discussing land levelling and encroachment on the bed of the river Kosasthalaiyar draining into the Ennore creek, KPL issued a clarification reiterating the point made in Mr. Gadkari’s submission that the land, comprising salt land, belonged to KPL. KPL said that “dredged soil, which is suitable for land filling, is used for developing the land that is beyond the CRZ area and other soil is dumped in deep sea in accordance with the environmental clearances issued by the MOEF.”
It further stated that “the area referred to (in the news item) is basically for deepening of the water body to facilitate the free movement of fishing boat during low tide.” The river diversion (deepening) project had been initiated based on the comprehensive hydrodynamic modelling study conducted by Niot, the release further said.
“For deepening the river, the earth has to be removed by deploying floating pontoon dredger. As the dredger needs to be taken into the river for deepening the river, the temporary approach has been made by hardening the area near the river. Once the deepening of river is completed, the temporary hardened approach will be removed and the original ground will be restored.”
However, The Hindu independently reviewed the permission letters given to KPL, which show that salt pan and salt marsh land are classified as ‘CRZ 1’ as per the Coastal Zone Management Plan. The Tamil Nadu Coastal Zone Management Authority, in a letter of approval for additional coal berths in December 2014, instructed KPL “not to dump any dredged material on salt pan areas”. The Union Environment Ministry letter dated March 12, 2015, instructed KPL to “comply with the conditions stipulated by the Tamil Nadu Coastal Zone Management Authority”.
