CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed the State to file an affidavit regarding the routine vehicle checkup in Nilgiris to restrict plastic bottles, and the court also directed the government to file a final report on the establishment of plastic bottle collection point in Kodaikanal.
The State should implement regulations to reduce the number of tourist vehicles lined up in Nilgiris during holidays instead of allowing all the vehicles, observed a special bench comprising Justice N Satish Kumar and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy.
During holidays there is a huge number of vehicles occupying Nilgiris which leads to utter chaos even the local people cannot go out for their emergency, observed the bench.
Further, the bench also observed that the State is poorly implementing the vehicle check-up in Nilgiris to restrict the plastic bottles and directed the district collector to appear before the court through video conferencing on the next hearing.
The counsel for the petitioner contended that plastic bottles were being smuggled into Nilgiris. After the submission, the bench directed the State to impose a fine on whoever using plastic bottles.
The Additional Advocate General (AAG) J Ravindran said that if all the vehicles were checked one by one there would be huge traffic jams in Nilgiris. AAG also submitted that a report will be filed before the court regarding the vehicle checkup.
AAG also submitted the status report of the buy-back scheme of Tasmac empty bottles successfully implemented in Nilgiris, Coimbatore, and Perambalur. Soon the scheme will be expanded to other districts Such as Nagappatinam, Kanyakumari, Theni, and Dharmapuri.
Accepting the submission, the bench directed the State to implement the buy-back empty bottles scheme in all the districts and directed to file a status report, and adjourned the case on December 8 for reporting compliance.