'Evict fish stalls in Marina loop road', MHC tells GCC

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday questioned Greater Chennai Corporation as to how they are going to achieve the goal of Singara Chennai, without clearing the encroachments and directed to evict the fish stalls encroaching upon the carriageway on Marina beach loop road with police assistance and to file a report on April 18.

The Madras High Court has taken up a suo motu public interest litigation petition, to issue a direction to government officials to regulate fish stalls put up along the loop road at the Marina beach in Chennai, since they cause traffic chaos during peak hours from 8 am to 11 am and 4 pm to 8 pm everyday.

Initiating proceedings, the division bench comprising acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy said the encroachments ought to be removed in the public interest and directed the court registry to list the matter before another bench headed by Justice SS Sundar.

When this plea came up for hearing before Justices SS Sundar and PB Balaji, Additional Advocate General J Ravindran representing Greater Chennai Corporation submitted that a market was being set up at a cost of Rs 9.97 crore for fishermen running fish stalls on loop road and the fishermen will be relocated after construction of a fish market within six months and till then considering the livelihood of the fishermen traffic is being regularised.

The GCC also assured that the legal action will be taken against the restaurants running on the loop road without licence.

However, the bench questioned whether the corporation has any power to clear the encroachment and expressed their displeasure that only encroachment is allowed on the road but traffic is not allowed.

"What measures have been taken to clear the encroachments? The small outlets occupied not only 25 percent of the road but also the pedestrian way on the western side of the loop road. Whether the roads are there for washing the fish? How were those restaurants given licences to encroach on pedestrian ways? Encroachment of public roads cannot be tolerated and cannot be compromised. How is the GCC going to achieve the goal of Singara Chennai without clearing the encroachments?, " the bench questioned.

Hearing the arguments, the bench has directed Greater Chennai Corporation to evict the fish stalls encroaching upon the carriageway on Marina beach loop road with police assistance and to ensure that there are no encroachments on the western side of loop road and told to file a report on April 18 and adjourned the hearing.