HC pulls up Chennai Corporation

Chennai, Sep 1: Pulling up the Commissioner of Chennai Corporation on several dumping yards and about the difficulties faced by the public, the Madras High Court today directed it to submit the entire list of non-compliances along with the time period within which they are to be complied within a period of three weeks.

"Whether the corporation commissioner would be able to sit near a dump yard for at least 24 hours. If he sits, he will come to know the difficulties faced by the public," the court observed.

Several batches of PILs were filed in connection with dumping garbages in the city without complying with the environmental norms.

The First Bench comprising of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan while passing interim order on the petitions which were pending since 2002, said, "The report of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board is a reflection on the complete carelessness of the corporation in complying with the environmental norms."

When it was brought to the notice of the bench that new rules were framed in 2016, the bench said, "Now an endeavour is made to hide behind the 2016 Rules which is impermissible, as the time period envisaged under those rules would be only for the new establishments or for new norms, which have been introduced, but it would not obliterate the time period required to be met with the norms under old rules."

It observed orally, "If the corporation commissioner needs a place near the dump yard, a chair or a shed can be provided to him to understand the difficulties faced by the residents in the area."

PTI