The Madras High Court on Monday took serious note of erosion of shoreline alongside the loop road on the Marina beach and the gradual reduction of the distance between the sea and shore over there. It decided to find a solution to the issue by directing the Centre as well as the State governments to act on the basis of expert opinion.
Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad pointed out that the professors V. Sundar and S.A. Sannasiraj of Department of Ocean Engineering at the IIT-M had already submitted a ‘Comprehensive Shoreline Protection Management Plan for Entire Tamil Nadu Coast’ to the government.
However, it was not known whether any steps were taken by the government. Hence, the judges suo motu impleaded the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests as well as the PWD Secretary as respondents to a PIL filed by Fishermen Care, an NGO.
It was on this petition, that last year, another Division Bench of Justices Vineet Kothari and Anita Sumanth had directed the Greater Chennai Corporation to clean up the entire Marina beach and issue licence to the hawkers over there. They also wanted the fishermen doing business at the loop road to be regularised.
Accordingly, Additional Government Pleader E. Manoharan informed the court on Monday that the Corproation had already prepared a draft of Beach Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation) Bye Laws of 2019. He also submitted a copy of the draft bylaws in the court and furnished copies to various hawker and fishermen associations.
After granting a week’s time for those associations to submit their response, when the judges broached the subject of erosion of shoreline, the AGP told the court that an Anti Sea Erosion Wing was already functioning in the PWD. He also said that the National Institute of Ocean Technology could also be asked to carry out a study on erosion.
The judges recorded his submission and called for details regarding the function of the Anti Sea Erosion Wing by Wednesday. They also wanted to know the steps taken pursuant to the report submitted by IIT professors.
