Bench seeks lab report as plea says sewage let out into irrigation canal

The Madras High Court on Monday directed the State government to submit a sample of water from an irrigation canal in Villupuram after a litigant alleged that untreated sewage was allowed to drain into the canal.

The first bench of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy issued the direction to Villupuram district administration after hearing a plea by one G Ramesh Mani, who sought direction to the government to stop the untreated sewage into the canal as it would destroy the fertility of the land.

“Villagers residing in Middle Street and Mettu Street of Naraiyur village in Villupuram taluk have dug up a sewage channel linking it to a flowing stream named Kamatchiamman Vaikkal flowing in the west to east direction from the Koliyanur tank and is said to start at Koliyanur eri and end at Nariyur odai,” the petitioner said in his affidavit.

Because of this, the water in the channel is contaminated while the solid waste dumped into it is impeding the flow of water.

Recording the submissions, the bench asked the government to furnish the result of lab test of a sample from the channel. The court added that the officials who allowed this to happen would face consequences. The matter has been adjourned by a week.

Earlier, Villupuram Collector filed a counter-affidavit stating that a mechanism to filter the water was put in place, which includes installing soak pits and a common horizontal filter before the water is allowed to flow into the canal.