Chennai: The Madras high court has asked authorities to file the logs relating to the Chembarambakkam reservoir showing the water levels during the relevant (flood) period from November 29,2015 to December 2, 2015.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M. M. Sundresh posted to April 13, further hearing of a public interest litigation from Rajiv Raj, a businessman, which sought a direction to the state government to constitute a high-powered committee, headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court or the high court and consisting of government officials, technical personnel, senior advocates, scientists and environmentalists to study the various events which led to the flooding in Chennai.
The bench said it was the submission of the counsel for the petitioner that apparently there has been no practical compliance of the National Disaster Management Act, National Disaster Management Guidelines on preparation of state disaster management plans and the National Disaster Management Act, guidelines on Flood.
The counsel for the petitioner stated that the aforesaid have been filed by him, but to assist the court, the compendium of flood rules of Anaicut and Reservoirs would be required. The same also be produced before this court by the authorities within a week, the bench added.
The bench said in order to appreciate what the state disaster management authority has done as the pre-preparatory work from its inception and how many meetings were held during and after the floods, an affidavit be filed by the state government in this behalf along with the minutes and all these be produced for perusal of the court.
The logs relating to the Chembarambakkam reservoir showing the water levels during the relevant period from November 29, 2015 to December 2, 2015, may also be filed, which, in fact, was sought for by the petitioner vide RTI and in respect of which no objection was raised, but yet has not been supplied. Advance copy of these be delivered to the petitioner. Affidavit be filed within three weeks, the bench added.
