Complaining that works under the Smart Cities Mission were not being properly implemented in Madurai, an advocate filed a public interest litigation petition before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday seeking a direction to the authorities concerned to conduct quality control inspections before bills were cleared.
A Division Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and S. Ananthi ordered notice to the Centre and the State on the PIL petition filed by advocate B. Ashok of Madurai. The petitioner said 14 smart city projects were sanctioned for Madurai with a sanctioned amount of ₹977.5 crore. The works included laying of smart roads on the four Masi streets of Madurai.
He said on the pretext of implementation of the works several trees were cut and public water taps removed without proper inspection. The smart water and sewerage management system was the main component of the Smart Cities activity. But, this was not being implemented properly.
Low quality materials were being used for construction activities. Instead of cement a huge quantity of fly ash was being used. As per government norms, river sand or m-sand must be used, but white metal dust and low quality iron rods were used. Manholes were also constructed using low quality materials, the petitioner alleged.
The platform for storm water discharge was not levelled properly and it resulted in rainwater stagnation. This could become a breeding ground for mosquitoes and cause diseases like dengue. With so many irregularities in the implementation, there must be an inspections of the works carried out so far, the petitioner said.
