Roads relayed without milling: Officials rapped
Taking strong exception to the indiscriminate laying of road without milling the existing road resulting in its height going up when compared to the houses causing inundation during rainy season, the Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the Secretaries of Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department and Highways Department to appear before it on February 28 to explain as to why the roads are being laid without milling/scraping.
By : migrator
Update: 2020-02-26 21:35 GMT
Chennai
A division bench comprising Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice P Velumurugan on citing case of War Memorial located at Chennai, wherein the platform around it which was five feet high in the 1980s has gone down while the height of the road has gone up owing to relaying the road without milling, said, “When that is the position in the arterial road in the City of Chennai, one can understand the position of the roads in other Corporations, Municipalities, Towns, Urban areas and Villages.”
“No contractor is milling/scraping the road before relaying the road. It would only go to show that the contractors are not properly monitored by the officials while the work was executed. Sheer negligence on the part of the officials is the root cause for this problem. Therefore, the officials should be identified and put to task whenever milling is not done while relaying the road,” the bench said.
Also, the bench in its order cited the order of the first bench in 2018 regards Chittlapakkam wherein the Chief Justice had held that the indiscriminate repair and relaying of roads without scrapping the existing roads causes inconvenience to house owners, who cannot be expected to raise the height of the plinth of their houses every time roads are re-laid.
Based on this, the bench led by Justice Kirubakaran held that the contractors who are not milling the road before relaying it should be fixed and blacklisted, otherwise this problem would continue. Moreover, while issuing the tender for laying the road, the public should be informed by way of paper publication that if the milling of the road is not done, the public shall complain about the same to the notified authorities for initiating appropriate action against the erring contractors.
Following this, the bench suo motu impleaded the Secretary, Highways Department, in the case. The bench was passing orders on a plea filed by Mayiladuthurai Chamber of Commerce seeking for a direction to inspect the Pattamangalam Street, Mayiladuthurai Town and relay the street only after scrapping and levelling the existing road.
They contended that whenever roads are re-laid without scrapping and levelling the existing streets, the height of the streets get increased every time, thereby affecting the people, traders and businessmen.
Visit news.dtnext.in to explore our interactive epaper!
Download the DT Next app for more exciting features!
Click here for iOS
Click here for Android