National Green Tribunal
National Green Tribunal Southern Zone vs The District Collector Chennai ... on 20 May, 2022
Bench: K Ramakrishnan, K. Satyagopal
Item No.4: Court No.1
BEFORE THE NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL
SOUTHERN ZONE, CHENNAI
(Through Video Conference)
Original Application No. 41 of 2020 (SZ)
IN THE MATTER OF:
Tribunal on its own motion Suo Motu based
on the News Item published in the Times of
India, Chennai edition dated 17.02.2020,
"Choking Waterways".
And
The District Collector,
Chennai District and Ors.
...Respondent(s)
Date of hearing: 20.05.2022.
CORAM:
HON'BLE Mr. JUSTICE K. RAMAKRISHNAN, JUDICIAL MEMBER
HON'BLE Dr. SATYAGOPAL KORLAPATI, EXPERT MEMBER
For Applicant(s): Suo Motu by Court.
For Respondent(s): Dr. D. Shanmuganathan for R1, R4 to R7, R10 & R11.
Mr. S. Sai Sathya Jith for R2.
Mr. N.K. Ponraj represented
Mr. P. Srinivas for R8, R9 & R12.
Mr. Gautham S Raman for R13.
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ORDER
1. As per order dated 07.02.2022, this Tribunal, after extracting the order passed on 28.07.2021 in Para (1) of the order, passed the following order:-
"2. The case was posted to 25.08.2021 for consideration of further reports. On 25.08.2021, at the request of the counsel appearing for the parties and also under some hope that higher level committee will take some action in this regard, at the request of the counsel appearing for State Department, the case has been adjourned to 21.09.2021 for consideration of further report.
3. Thereafter, since no reports have been filed. The cases have been adjourned from time to time by successive notifications and lastly the matter has been adjourned to today as per notification dated 07.01.2022. Neither the Joint Committee nor the official respondents who are expected to take action has filed their respective reports before this Tribunal as directed. This is not the first time that this Tribunal has expressed displeasure on such issues. It is not known as to whether this is being taken note by the Secretary level officials to alert the subordinate officers to comply with the directions of this Tribunal, so as to enable this Tribunal to dispose of the cases effectively. Wherever, the high level intervention is required for doing certain things on the basis of the proposals made by the local bodies or other subordinate officials they are also expected to take some proactive steps to consider and grant appropriate sanction including financial and technical for implementing those proposals, otherwise the subordinate officers/persons who are expected to execute the orders may not be able to fulfil the same in the manner in which it has to be done in an effective manner.
4. Since Pallavaram Municipal area and Pammal Municipality have been merged with newly established Tambaram Municipal Corporation. We Suo -Motu impleaded the Commissioner, Tambaram Municipal Corporation, Tambaram as additional 12th respondent.
5. The Registry is directed to carry out the amendment in the cause title.
6. Issue notice to Tambaram Municipal Corporation, Tambaram by Registered post with all the documents and also previous order, so as to enable them to comply with the direction.
7. The learned counsel appearing for Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB), and the State Department wanted some time to file their statements.
8. However, considering the circumstances, we feel that some time can be granted to them to comply with the directions issued by this Tribunal by order dated 17.03.2021.
9. The Joint Committee as well as other official respondents are directed to file their respective reports to this Tribunal on or before 17.03.2022 by e- filing in the form of Searchable PDF/OCR Supportable PDF and not in the form of Image PDF along with necessary hardcopies to be produced as per Rules.
10. The Registry is directed to communicate this order to the Joint Committee, officials respondents including the Chief Secretary to Government Page 2 of 5 of Tamil Nadu, the Additional Chief Secretary for Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department, Commissioner - Municipal Administration, Principal Secretary for Rural Development & Panchayat Raj Department, Commissioner of Town Panchayat, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB), Commissioner-Tambaram City Municipal Corporation as Pallavaram and Pammal have now merged to form Tambaram City Municipal Corporation, Executive Officer - Kundrathur Town Panchayath and Executive Officer - Thiruneermalai Town Panchayath for their information and for compliance of the direction and to instruct the subordinate officers to comply with the direction to avoid coercive steps to be taken by this Tribunal against them."
2. Again, the matter was taken up on 12.04.2022 and on that day, this Tribunal had directed the Executive Engineer, Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) to file a report and they were also impleaded in this proceeding as additional respondent.
3. The newly impleaded party viz., the Commissioner - Tambaram City Municipal Corporation/12th Respondent filed the report dated 18.05.2022, e-filed on 19.05.2022 which reads as follows:-
"2. COMPLIANCE OF THE DIRECTION It is respectfully submitted that in due compliance of the orders of the Hon'ble National Green Tribunal, the following steps were taken by the Tambaram Corporation and the same is submitted for the consideration of this Hon'ble Tribunal.
Plugging of Discharge of Sewage/sullage into the Manickam Odai:
1. With regard to letting out of Sewage/Sullage Water into the Manickam Odai in the Pallavaram and Pammal Areas which are newly areas to the Tambaram Corporation it is submitted that Under Ground Sewage Schemes are completed and in usage at Pallavaram Area and in respect of certain unserved areas and tail end streets, the works are at advanced stage and they will be completed by June 2022 and after that letting out of Sewage/Sullage Water will be completely stopped from the Pallavaram Area.
2. With regard to Pammal and Anakaputhur areas which are newly added to the Tambaram Corporation, underground drainage Scheme construction was started in Dec - 2021 with an estimated amount of 211.15 Crores and the work is going on at these 4 Zones with 3 Pumping station, 1 Lifting station, 1 STP followed by pipe lines for 100 Kms and pumping line for 6 kms. As of now Zone 2 work has been started and all the UGD & Sewer Pipe line work will be completed by the year 2023.Page 3 of 5
Plugging of Discharge of Sewage/sullage into the Naattukalvai:
1. With regard to letting out of Sewage/Sullage Water into the Nattu Kaivai in the Thiruneermalai Area which is a newly added area to the Tambaram Corporation it is submitted that totally there are 16 households are there in the said area and as of now the generated waste water from the households are disposed through individual septic tanks. Further the said area was inspected by the Sanitary Inspector in the second week of May and during inspection it was found that the houses are letting only the Rain Water into the Nattu Kalvai.
With regard to the implementation of UGSS Scheme in the newly added areas it is submitted that the Tambaram Corporation has taken action for implementing UGSS in all uncovered areas of Sembakkam, Chitlapakkam, Thiruneermalai, Peerkankaranai, Perungalathur and Madampakkam. The said areas are all newly added areas to the Tambaram Corporation and they were all formerly Municipality and Town Panchayats having low density of population. The Detailed project report Preparation is in progress with Tamil Nadu Urban Infrastructure Financial Services Limited for implementation of UGSS scheme in the above said uncovered areas."
4. However, we feel that some more time can be granted to the State Pollution Control Board and the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board to file their respective reports and they are directed to file their respective reports to this Tribunal on or before 31.05.2022 by e-filing in the form of Searchable PDF/OCR Supportable PDF and not in the form of Image PDF along with necessary hardcopies to be produced as per Rules.
5. The Registry is directed to communicate this order to the CMWSSB, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and also to the Additional Chief Secretary to Government, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Forests, the Additional Chief Secretary to Government, Department of Municipal Administration and Water Supply and Director - Municipal Administration by e-mail for their information and also for compliance of directions.
Page 4 of 56. For consideration of further report, post on 31.05.2022.
Sd/-
Justice K. Ramakrishnan, J.M. Sd/-
Dr. Satyagopal Korlapati, E.M. O.A. No.41/2020 (SZ), 20th May 2022. Mn.
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