Justice Vineet Kothari of the Madras High Court on Thursday wondered why most of the city was being supplied water through tanker lorries and not underground pipelines.
Stating that the supply to his official bungalow was also being met through such tankers, he lamented the financial stress on the public exchequer on account of this practice.
Leading a Division Bench along with Justice Anita Sumanth, the judge told Special Government Pleader J. Pothiraj that it was disheartening to learn that the government spends around ₹40 lakh a month just to supply water through tanker lorries to all VIPs residing in the heart of the city. He could not fathom the need for such recurring expenditure.
“My house does not have pipelines. Where are the pipelines? What is your State government doing about supply of water through pipelines?” the judge asked the law officer.
‘Waste of money’
Referring to the huge cost involved in renting as well as operating the lorries, the judge said: “We should not allow public money to be spent like this.”
The senior judge broached the subject during the hearing of a public interest litigation petition filed by Kokilambal Nagar and Alagappa Nagar Residents Welfare Association at Thoraipakkam. The petition was filed in 2017 seeking drinking water connections, underground drainage facilities, stormwater drains, concrete roads and other basic facilities. During the course of hearing, the petitioner’s counsel T. Kokilavane pointed out that the court had on December 11 directed the Municipal Administration and Water Supply department, Greater Chennai Corporation and Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) to take coordinated efforts.
Observing that public money could be saved and least inconvenience caused to residents if all departments work together in providing basic amenities, the court had directed the officials to hold a joint meeting to draw up an action plan. However, when the matter was taken up once again on January 8, the court expressed dissatisfaction over a status report filed by the Area Engineer of CMWSSB. “The said report is laconic, to say the least. It seems that the letter and spirit of the court order has not been understood by the respondents in the present case,” the Bench said.
Not satisfied with the report, it directed the Managing Director of CMWSSB to chair a joint meeting of all departments as well as the Corporation and produce a “proper Action Plan” before the court, by the end of the month, indicating the nature of the proposed projects, estimated cost, budgetary allocations made and status of work already being done.
Accordingly, the case got listed once again on Thursday and this time, a two and a half page minutes of the meeting held under the chairmanship of Managing Director of CMWSSB on January 23 was placed before the court. The minutes stated that the jurisdictional limit of Chennai corporation was increased from 174 to 426 square kilometres in 2011.
Since 42 contiguous local bodies had been annexed to the corporation, an integrated plan for development of comprehensive infrastructure in those areas were on different stages of implementation. It was also resolved in the meeting to instruct a Regional Deputy Commissioner of Corporation to prepare an action plan within a day and submit it to the court without fail.
Irked over such sketchy details submitted in court, the judges directed the officials to submit a comprehensive report in the court by March 12 and warned that they would be constrained to summon the Chief Secretary if such a report was not filed.
