Suspend officials who fail to evict waterbody encroachers, TN government

The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the State government to take stringent action, including suspension, against the government officials who fail to remove encroachments from the waterbodies.

The first bench of Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice PD Audikesavalu passed the direction on hearing a batch of petitions. A day after the Chief Secretary submitted a compliance report before the HC, the bench reserved orders and strictly directed the government to prevent new encroachments in the waterbodies.

“The Chief Secretary has submitted the compliance report with the details of the waterbodies. The officials should act swiftly to evict all the encroachments from the waterbodies. If new encroachments crop up, the officials who fail to avoid such encroachments should be suspended from their job and the government shall initiate disciplinary proceedings against erring officials,” the bench observed.

The judges also asked the petitioners to submit their proposals to prevent the waterbodies encroachments. While one of the petitioners submitted that a district-level committee could be formed to protect the waterbodies, the bench rejected it saying it would not help evict encroachers.

Further, the petitioners stated that though the government has uploaded the details of waterbodies on the Tamil Nilam website, the public could access it only if they know the survey numbers which are not made available.

On recording the submissions, the judges directed the government to disclose the survey numbers of all the waterbodies on the Tamil Nilam website. The bench reserved the orders without mentioning the date.