: Madras High Court has closed a PIL seeking a directive to the state Government to build barrages along the 110 km path of Kollidam river, a major water source to 13 districts, as also Chennai and directed the petitioner to approach the authorities concerned.
"In our view, the matter falls totally within the domain of the Government. As to where a barrage should be made, what project should be undertaken,how funds should be allocated, it is for the Executive Government to consider," the first bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana said
They gave the direction recently on PIL filed by an Advocate K Rajendran.
Noting that the petitioner had earlier approached it on the matter, the court felt this aspect has to be examined by government and not by intervention of Judicial Proceedings.
"The petitioner is free to approach the concerned authorities without giving rise to any fresh cause of action in a PIL."
Rajendran had submitted that river Kollidam, the biggest branch of Cauvery, travels 110 km from Upper Anaicut in Trichy District up to Anaikaran Chatram in Nagapattinam District is supplying drinking water to State Capital Chennai City through "New Veeranam Project".
Apart from this, the underground water aquifier supplies water to 13 districts, 83 town habitations and several hundred villages and serves nearly about two crore people, he said.
Alleging that each year several TMC's of water overflows in the m River wasted without any storage dams, barrages and reaches the sea, he said in the year 2005 nearly 90 TMC feet water is wasted.
If the situation continues for some more years in the Kollidam and Cauvery river belt, the salt water from Bay of Bengal would percolate underground and intrude good water aquifer in the river belt and future generations would face desert like situation in the Cauvery delta.
Emphasizing that it was the State Government's duty to construct at least seven barrages across Kollidam in its 110 Km path, he alleged that the proposal to build dams had been put in cold storage at least for the past 10 years.
Hence he prayed for a direction from the Court to the Government to construct a barrage across Kollidam at an estimated cost of Rs 400 crore.
In the meantime, he prayed for an interim injunction, restraining the authorities in any manner allowing pumping out of underground water and transporting to other districts.
