The Madras High Court bench here on Friday directed the chief engineer of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB), the chief engineer of the Public Works Department (PWD) and the Madurai Corporation Commissioner to submit their reports on actions taken to clean up Vaigai river.
A Division Bench of Justices R. Sudhakar and S. Vaidyanathan issued the direction while hearing a public interest litigation filed by S. Muthukumar, an advocate, to clean up the garbage and sewage from the river.
The petitioner had claimed that the residents of Madurai dumped garbage and discharged sewage into the river, which mixed with the drinking water pipelines in a few places and resulted in contamination of water.
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The judges had last week directed the TNPCB to depute a team of officials to control pollution in the river and had issued a stringent warning against pollution in Vaigai. The judges had further appointed advocate T. Mohan as an amicus curie to assist the court in the case.
A batch of public interest litigations to clean-up Vaigai was also heard by the Bench on Friday. The judges adjourned the batch of cases to January 9, 2014 for further hearing.