Chennai: Submit report on encroachments on waterbodies tomorrow, CS to districts

“You (District Collectors) should not be sluggish in collecting data, but rather work day and night to collect information and fill in forms provided by the Water Resources Department. The filled forms should be submitted to the Revenue Secretary on Saturday,” the Chief Secretary said, according to a release.

The HC had given the government time till December 7 to submit the complete report waterbody encroachments. Following the court direction, the Chief Secretary held a meeting with senior officials and District Collectors, through video conferencing at the Secretariat in which he asked them to collect complete details of encroachments.

Irai Anbu also directed Collectors to engage district revenue officers, officials of the Revenue Department, zonal officials of municipalities and corporations and executive engineers of Water Resources Department to collect the details of encroachments. They were also directed to add details of the encroachments removed and the stay order issued by the court for removing encroachments.

In connection with the case filed at the HC to remove encroachments in Sithalapakkam lake in 2019, the CS held meetings with officials on November 2 and November 24 this year, ahead of its hearing on December 1 when the report on encroachment was submitted to the High Court on Wednesday. However, the court combined 11 similar encroachment cases and questioned why the 2019 order of the Madurai bench was not implemented as well.