Drainage removal: HC criticises civic bodies

The Madras High Court today criticised the Chennai Corporation for its delay in deploying machines to remove drainage and sewer lines and observed that "we are still at the stage of studies being made rather than implementation."
Irked by the reply of the Corporation that the desilting of canal works were delayed because of encroachments, Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M M Sundersh said "encroachments must be tackled urgently as larger public interest is involved. Public interest cannot be jeopardized merely because the encroachers decided to sit on the government lands".
Their reaction came while considering a PIL by Narayanan, Director of Change India, a NGO, who sought a direction from the Court to restrain the Corporation from deploying human beings to enter into the storm water drains and the metro water authorities from deploying humans for cleaning of sewage lines and manholes.

The PIL sought a direction from the Court to utilise mechanical devises for the cleaning.
In its counter affidavit, the municipal administration department told the court that human beings were not being made to enter into manholes.
However, the Chennai Corporation in its reply said only where blockages cannot be cleared through the machines, manual labour is deployed.

"What is of concern to us, however, is that the Corporation is still at the stage of feasibility study regarding use of mechanical devices for removals of silt, surplus earth, sludge and solid waste from storm water drains and to clear blockages."

The bench also directed the Corporation to prepare a road map to obtain the necessary machines to drain out the storm water and the metro water authorities to remove the sewer.
The bench, which adjourned the matter for four weeks, directed the Corporation and the Metro Water to find out from the contractors to whom the work is entrusted whether civic works are equipped with the devises required to unclog sewer and storm water drains.