The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) on Friday told the Madras High Court that though it had identified around 1,600 vendors on Marina beach, a decision had been taken to restrict the permissible number to about 800. Similarly, 386 vendors had been identified so far at Elliot’s Beach in Besant Nagar, the court was told.
The submissions were made by its counsel before a Division Bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and M. Nirmal Kumar, who were seized of a public interest litigation petition related to proper maintenance of the beaches in the city. The judges expressed their displeasure over the enumeration exercise continuing without any end in sight. “After the jallikattu protest on the Marina, didn’t you take full control of the beach for 45 days and not allow even visitors to the beach? It only shows that if you want, you can do things in no time. In so far as regulating vendors on the beach is concerned, you do not want to do it and therefore the delay,” Justice Kumar said.
Justice Sathyanarayanan said that difficulty in implementing laws such as the Chennai City Municipal Corporation Act and the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act could not be cited as reasons for their non- implementation. “As long as the laws are there, you are bound to follow it. We are not asking you to do some extraordinary feat, we are only asking you to follow the laws in force. If you cannot do even that, then scrap all the laws,” the judge added. He was also displeased with the Corporation not able to control the fishermen on the loop road near the Marina.
It was pointed out to the counsel that the fishermen occupy almost the entire road for selling their catch and hardly leave any space for motor vehicles to pass through. Justice Kumar wondered why those people could not be regulated by shifting them to a market place like the fishermen of two other hamlets between the DGP’s office and Kannagi statue.
Later, the judges granted time till November 26 for the Corporation to file a comprehensive report on the steps it had proposed to take to regulate the fishermen on the loop road as well as the vendors on the two beaches.
