The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday sought response from the Ramanathapuram district administration on a public interest litigation petition complaining about discharge of sewage and effluents into a waterbody at Sakkarakottai in the district.
A Division Bench of Justices G.R. Swaminathan and B. Pugalendhi sought response from the authorities on the petition filed by A. Thungu Abdul Rahman of Sakkarakottai, who complained that untreated waste and sewage was directly let out into the waterbody at the village.
He said even as per the official data, there was no existence of any sewage treatment facility nor any underground sewage system for effective collection of waste. Without any proper facility and no proper disposal mechanism, the waste generated and the sewage were let out into the waterbody, completely polluting it. The residents of the area were affected by this, he said.
In 2018, a meeting was held between the authorities and the residents. The authorities had assured the residents that discharge of waste into the waterbody would be stopped. However, no action was taken in this regard. Despite numerous representations, the authorities had failed to act, the petitioner said.
The residents had also staged protests in this regard. The inaction of the authorities was leading to a grave environmental disaster, the petitioner said, adding that the waterbody should be restored to its serene and pristine state.
