Chennai: The Madras high court has stayed the operation of the order passed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) imposing a penalty of `100 crore on the Tamil Nadu government for its alleged failure to restore Adyar and Coovum rivers and Buckingham canal.
A division bench comprising Justices R. Subbiah and Krishnan Ramasamy granted the interim stay and ordered notice to NGT, Jawaharlal Shanmugham and three others on a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu government, which sought to quash the order passed by the NGT dated February 13, 2019.
The NGT had passed the order on a batch of petitions including the one from Jawaharlal Shanmugham which sought a direction to the state government to restore and revive the water bodies in the state.
In its present petition, the state government submitted that the PWD and other departments such as the Sewerage Board, Corporation of Chennai, river Restoration Trust worked tirelessly to ensure the cleaning and also removal of the encroachments. Time line was also submitted by the authorities for the removal of encroachments to the Tribunal.
The CMWSSB had also submitted a detailed report which was taken cognisance of by the Tribunal in its earlier order, noting the substantial work has been undertaken by the governmental authority in this regard. The tribunal was also given details of the number of encroachments and the steps taken to resettle them through TN Slum Clearance Board.
The details of regular desilting and cleaning process conducted were also submitted to the Tribunal right from the hearing of the applications and reports regarding the work conduced over these water bodies over the past 5 years were also forwarded to the Tribunal for its perusal. Despite such details as sought by the Tribunal, it had without considering the report and details proceeded to pass the present order, the petitioner added.
