Madras HC halts drinking water borewell project along Kollidam River

MADURAI: The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court ordered an interim injunction on the new drinking water borewell project along the Kollidam river bed at Anbil village in Trichy district. A bench comprising Justices GR Swaminathan and Pugalendhi passed the interim order on two Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed against the project.

Gajendran, one of the litigants stated in his petition, "Kollidam river supplies water for agriculture to Anbil and 20 villages in Trichy district. It also serves as drinking water for the people of the southern and northern districts. However, for the past 25 years, there has been a shortage of water due to illegal mining in the Kollidam river."

"Despite the demand of Anbil villagers for the last 7 years to build a step dam at Kollidam, the Tamil Nadu government is not considering it and is trying to set up a new borewell in the area," Gajendran stated in his petition.

The villagers from Anbil have been urging for the construction of a check dam at Kollidam for seven years, but the state government has disregarded their request and is aiming to install a new drinking water borewell in the region. A similar PIL was filed by R Arumugham of Anbil village.

The counsel representing him claimed that the project was first planned for Sevanthipuram village but was relocated to Keela Anbil village due to objections raised by the Sevanthipuram residents against the project.

Gajendran had earlier also stated that the new drinking water borewell is against the interest of the agriculturists since there is already a scarcity of water for which the villagers had staged a protest as well.

Even though a representation was submitted to stop the work of sinking borewells, no steps were taken after which the petitioner, Gajendran, moved the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court, seeking to restrain the authorities from continuing the work for the borewell project at Kollidam riverbed in Anbil village.