A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court to restrain Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) from constructing tenements on 3.3 acres of land at Old Perungalathur village in Tambaram Taluk of Kacheepuram district.
The petitioners claimed that the entire stretch of land was actually a part of Adyar.
First Division Bench of Chief Justice Vijaya Kamlesh Tahilramani and Justice M. Duraiswamy on Monday ordered notices to the State government, TNSCB as well as Kancheepuram Collector on the PIL petition filed jointly by M. Vincent, J.R.D. Aruldoss and C. Sridharan who claimed to be social workers hailing from the same locality.
According to the petitioners, the Adyar flows from the West to the East and passes through various places such as Guduvanchery, Urapakkam, Old Perungalathur, Anakaputhur and Saidapet before joining the Bay of Bengal. Though the original width of the river was around 200 feet, it had now shrunk to 120 feet due to rampant encroachments.
In Old Perungaluthur village alone, the river passes through 3.3 acres of land, the petitioners claimed and stated that the said land was unsuitable for construction of multi-storeyed buildings due to clayey soil.
They also said that the High Court was already seized of connected cases filed against unauthorised constructions on Adyar banks.
However, the TNSCB has “unlawfully encroached” on 1.08.5 hectares out of the 3.3 acres of land in Old Perungalathur and constructing a multi-storey building to house those who were to be relocated from slums, the petitioners said and sought to restrain the officials from continuing with the construction in alleged violation of court orders.
Fearing that constructing multi-storey buildings in a low lying area might lead to collapse of the building and consequent loss of precious lives at it happened in the case of the infamous Moulivakkam tragedy in 2014, the petitioners said that the river course could be saved only by planting coconut and palmyrah trees on the entire stretch of its banks.
