Chennai: The Madras high court has directed the authorities to stop immediately the illegal tapping of water allegedly by one Devaraj at Kattupakkam village in Thiruvallur district.
A division bench comprising Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad gave the directive and posted to June 10, further hearing of a Public Interest Litigation filed by V.Sheela Devi, a resident of Kattupakkam village.
The bench said a G.O dated July 23, 2014 relating to tapping of water has been upheld by the writ court in a batch of petitions by an order dated October 3, 2018. Further this court has also issued directions in the above petitions. As alleged, if Devaraj has indulged in illegal tapping of water, it has to be stopped forthwith. The Thiruvallur district collector and Poonamallee Tahsildar are directed to comply with the directions, the bench added.
According to petitioner, she filed the PIL with intent to protect ground water in Selliyamman Street, Kattupakkam village, located in Poonamallee Tehsil, Thiruvallur. There were many companies engaged in extraction of ground water for commercial purpose in and around the area. Hence people living in the village were forced to face heavy drinking water problem.
By fixing a bore well, one Devaraj has engaged in extracting ground water illegally on the land owned by him without any approval from the authorities concerned for commercial purpose and selling the same to private water suppliers for a sum of Rs 1,000 per lorry. Every day, more than 50 private water supply lorries were coming to fill up the ground water. On several occasions, people living in and around Selliamman Koil street gave complaints about the illegal extraction of ground water to the authorities concerned, but there was no response. Hence, she filed the present petition, she added.
